Isle of the Crescent Moon
by Ms Starlight
Summary: When a body washes up on the Centran shore, Quistis and Seifer are sent off on a mission that pits them against a deadly monster on an isolated, tropical island. Quistis/Seifer. Revised 8/09.
1. Blood in the Water

Rating: R

Disclaimer: Final Fantasy 8 remains the sole property of Square-Enix.

A/N: This is, in a manner of speaking, an AU fic. Here's what you need to know: Seifer never went to Timber. Thus, he never became the sorceress's knight. So while he still may be a pain in the ass, he was never the enemy and eventually made SeeD. Also, this is a **revised edition** complete with correct grammar, increased steaminess, and a more developed plot. Enjoy!

Isle of the Crescent Moon

_"Last day of the rest of my life -- I wish I would have known because I would have kissed my momma goodbye."_ - POD

Prologue: Blood in the Water

Scenery flashed by in a horrific green blur. Brown mud and tree bark made the hazy image of brush and leaves appear dirty enough to be real. Yet, had that same foliage not had the startling capacity to grasp and tear at flesh, it would have been easy enough to discount as some sort of illusion. But the physical was strong, and the pain was enough to force Sascha Maurden toward the realization that he was not, in fact, dreaming.

Sascha's lungs heaved, burning and stinging deep down, and his legs pumped.

Fear consumed him. Fear of what he had done. Fear of where this frantic journey might end. As it was, he was running toward the water. It was a desperate hope for salvation. But even as he ran, his pace beginning to lag from exhaustion, he was aware that he might never make it to the shore.

Something moved to his right, rustling in the low-lying trees and bushes. Forest floor crunched under unnatural weight. The laden sound made Sascha's stomach drop violently to his knees.

He leapt over an old, fallen tree, urging himself to go faster. He needed to be better than he'd ever been, to run on instinct and terror. The fibers of his overworked heart strained and pulled hard to pump more blood to his extremities.

Unable to accept the incredible, he continued to struggle with his grasp upon reality. Things like this just didn't happen -- not to people like him.

Branches and thorns bit at him. But he ignored the scratches and the welts because now he was being followed..._hunted_.

_Keep going_, he urged himself. _It won't go into the water._

He could hear it behind him. It was close, brushing through the trees. With each stride it blew out a hot breath which marked the time of its steady but sluggish pace. It was teasing him, Sascha realized, prolonging the hunt for the pure pleasure.

The ocean came into view between the trees. Bile was stinging the back of Sascha's throat, but the site of the water, sparkling and blue, forced it back down into the empty pit of his turbulent stomach. He was close. So close. Just a few more steps...a few more seconds...and the safety of the water would envelop him. Then he could leave this wretched place and forget that it ever existed.

He took a deep breath, ready to hold it for the plunge.

But it rasped back out with a bubbling, sickening sound as something caught him from behind. For what seemed a long moment, he hanged there, his feet now suspended off the ground and a dark slick forming underneath him.

_Hyne_...

Sascha struggled feebly. He clawed and writhed, digging his fingers deep into his own flesh as he tried to get free. The beast that had him bellowed and tossed him violently every which way until the pain ripping through him blended with all of his other senses. His screams, the smell of blood and the beast, the blue ocean — all was pain.

He gave one last shove and the teeth and claws that had invaded his body finally released with a sad sucking sound. The ground gave way beneath him and he flew through the air, fell through space, finally landing with a crash in the water.

Plunging beneath the cool surface, his consciousness wobbled.

This wasn't how it was supposed to be. But he was in the water now. He was safe.

It was over.

His eyes cracked open, peering out into the watery blue that was growing cloudy with blood. His blood. He shuddered once, his consciousness finally fleeing into its own private domain, leaving only his broken body to rise up into the crimson veil riding the surface of the waves.


	2. Dismal Shores

_"Happiness ain't never how you think it should be so."_ - Duncan Shiek

Chapter 1: Dismal Shores

Quistis fell backward and landed hard on the ground. Reverberations ran up her spine, humming in her teeth and playing painful chords on the muscles in her arms. She groaned. And her eyes flashed open in time to catch a glint of metal. Gasping, she ducked and rolled to the side, tumbling awkwardly right into a thicket of thorns. They snared her shirt, her hair, and one grazed her cheek. Crying out, she backpedaled out of the bush, every nerve in her body alive and aching.

Not surprisingly, she backed right into her opponent.

"Getting rusty, Quistis," Seifer said as he offered her a hand.

She scowled up at him, not appreciating the grin that was threatening to split his face. Seifer was a formidable opponent to train against, exactly what she had been looking for that morning. His aggressive, up close style made him especially difficult to attack with a whip, so training against him forced her to use her wits which were dulling due to years of inaction.

Ultimecia was but a vision of the past, or, rather, the future. It had been a strange journey through time compression, and for nearly a year afterward, the world had been at peace. All of the accolades she and the others had received for defeating the sorceress were now mounted to her like a yoke, chaining her to Garden and keeping her from where she really wanted to be: the field. That wasn't the case for Seifer. He'd been left behind that long ago morning when she'd been dispatched to Timber. Though, being excluded from their celebrated adventure had done nothing to quell his arrogance.

"I'm not rusty," she finally bit out, taking his proffered hand. He pulled her to her feet.

Curling her lip in disgust, more at herself than at him, she attempted to smooth out her appearance. Chunks of hair were hanging in front of her flushed face, pulled loose by the thorns. She took her clip out and forked a hand through her hair, taming it once again. Her clothing, on the other hand, was beyond salvaging. The ensemble was reserved exclusively for training, a pair of old, army green pants and a black tank top. She'd had it in her wardrobe for years and it had accumulated more than its fair share of dirt and blood.

"Three years ago, you would have seen that attack coming," Seifer said as he watched her dust off.

Quistis could only frown, knowing he was right. She'd begun to atrophy.

"It's the same with Squall and everyone else," he continued. "Fought against him a week ago. And the guy is getting really slow. Rinoa's turning him soft."

"So, you're the one who gave him that black eye?" she asked.

Seifer smirked. "Yep."

It had taken Quistis a long time to get used to seeing Rinoa and Squall in their happy life together, and even longer to fully remove the mark of love she'd branded into her heart for her once-upon-a-time student. She didn't know how Seifer felt about it. His arch rival had stolen his girlfriend out from underneath his nose, and she knew that had to hurt. So she supposed that there was something more to the way he was smiling at her, thinking about splitting his knuckles on Squall's skull, than just pride.

She sighed and rubbed her hands across her bottom. "That's going to ache for a day or two."

"You didn't fall _that_ hard." He rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah." She rolled her eyes right back at him. "I know. Just let me wallow in my self-pity for a minute."

He shrugged and lifted his gunblade up to prop it across his shoulders behind his head. "Mope all you want. But, just for the record, that's the second time this morning I've beaten you."

"The second?" She arched an eyebrow.

He nodded. "Once just now, and once when you first walked in."

Quistis groaned. "That doesn't count. I wasn't even in the sparring area yet."

Using some of the new funding generated by the Ultimecia affair, Garden had expanded the training center. There were now separate areas, each containing different specimens of monsters from around the world. However, Cid had never been able to acquire any Estharan monsters. Rather than waste money and space, he'd turned the rocky, scrubland they'd created into a sparring arena. Quistis had still been outside that area, on her way in through the Balamb portion, when Seifer had attacked out of nowhere, catching her completely off guard.

"You walk in here," he said, shrugging, "and you're prey."

"You're an idiot," she replied.

She gathered her whip, wrapping it around her hand before hooking it back on her belt. Seifer watched her closely, probably attempting to gauge how his remarks had affected her — he always liked to admire his own handiwork. But the things he tended to say now weren't quite as hurtful as they'd once been. Some of his aggression had toned down with age. And Quistis had become more impervious to his verbal assaults.

"Want to get lunch?" she asked, looking up at him. They'd been training all morning, at an impasse until he'd gotten the upper hand, and her stomach was rumbling.

"Sure."

He sheathed Hyperion, the only sure sign to Quistis that their session was over. He was one of those rare people who genuinely loved his job. Being a mercenary was Seifer's life. SeeD had been the only life Quistis had ever known, but she didn't draw the same amount of pleasure from it that he seemed to.

In a companionable silence, they left the training center together and emerged out into the brightly lit Garden hallway. Students were milling about between classes. A tightly clustered group of girls paused to look at the tired, sweaty couple they presented. Seifer was still relatively popular among Garden's female population. But in this instance, he seemed unaware of their attention.

"You know what I think your problem is?" he said. "You're too cautious. You're so busy looking for the best hit that you miss the three okay ones that happen in between. And you forget that there are no rules to combat."

"Maybe. But there _are_ rules to sparring," Quistis pointed out. "Besides, if we'd been using magic, I would have wiped the floor with you."

"You think so?" Seifer glanced at her. "Tomorrow then?"

"Tomorrow," she agreed. After being beaten by him — _twice_ — she was itching to force a little humility into his demeanor.

Cid's voice interrupted them, booming from the ceiling over the Garden's intercom system. "Squall Leonheart, please report to the headmaster's office."

 They both paused. The headmaster calling Squall usually meant that something was up, though usually it meant a diplomatic mission. Everyone on the planet knew who Squall Leonhart was, much to his own chagrin. But because he was still blanketly unsociable, Rinoa was almost always sent on non-violent missions with him. The simple fact that Cid hadn't paged Rinoa as well inclined Quistis to think that whatever was happening was something exciting…something she'd like a piece of.

"Damn." Seifer shook his head. "Wouldn't it be nice of a war broke out or something?"

 "Might want to be careful what you wish for," Quistis advised. Seifer snarled but other than that offered no reply.

When they arrived together at the cafeteria, they received a number of curious glances from the spattering of students who were sitting around eating. Seifer and Quistis didn't spend much time together even though they were in overlapping social circles. Seifer spent almost all of his time with Fujin and Raijin, though he was occasionally seen with both Irvine and Squall, whereas Quistis spent the majority of her time with Selphie and Zell. They often found themselves standing in the same group of people, but they were rarely alone together.

 The whisperers at the sight of them were heightened by the well-known fact that Quistis Trepe was a taken woman. She'd recently fallen into a relationship with a newly promoted instructor, Carson Brecht. He wasn't as handsome as men she'd dated in the past — just a little taller than her and mild mannered with light brown hair and pale blue eyes. But, as far as Quistis was concerned, he was a good complement to her straight-laced style. Plus, he adored her.

Seifer was completely oblivious to the stir their sudden companionship was creating and Quistis had to fight the urge to stop and explain to everyone exactly why she was with him. Really, he wasn't all that unpleasant to be around most of the time. Nevertheless, she didn't like the idea of rumors flying that there was something between them.

"Now I remember why I started eating out after becoming a SeeD," Seifer announced blandly as he looked over what food was remaining for lunch. There wasn't much left and with a displeased look he picked up a cold grilled cheese sandwich and a bowl of soup. Quistis chose what she considered the lesser of two evils and went for the salad. Then they made their way to an empty table in the middle of the room that was sitting beside a large, fake fern. The faux plants were all over Garden and were supposed to make the school seem less sparse and homier, but most of the cadets abused the plants to the point where they looked more pathetic than comforting.

Quistis flicked open the clear plastic container holding her salad and was squeezing hefty amounts of dressing across the lettuce and vegetables when Seifer sent her a critical sneer.

"Don't you think that kind of defeats the whole purpose of getting a salad?" he asked.

"Not for me," she replied and speared some leafy greens with her fork.

His sneer broke into a small smile and he busied himself with his own lunch.

She was halfway finished with her salad when Cid's voice came on over the intercom again: "Rinoa Heartilly, please report to the headmaster's office."

"Diplomatic mission then," Seifer said and sighed. "They're probably off to lunch in Deling City with Rinoa's daddy or something."

"Probably," Qusitis agreed. In fact, it was likely the couple really would be headed off to visit Rinoa's father sometime soon. From what she heard, Squall was planning to propose. Although, any trip to Galbadia (always hostile territory in one sense or another) would require Squall to play diplomat at some point.

"I want a real, long term mission. Not another one of the two day things Cid always sends me on," Seifer said and dropped his half eaten sandwich back onto his plate.

Quistis couldn't have agreed more, but she didn't say so. After all, going on a mission would mean leaving Carson behind, and she knew that would stress him out. He didn't like Quistis taking dangerous missions. She appreciated that he cared about her well being, but at the same time, she sometimes felt like she'd gained an over-protective parent with him rather than a boyfriend.

"Something will come along eventually," she said and shrugged.

0 0 0

Edea Kramer gripped the phone, listening to line ring on the other end. When her husband's secretary didn't pick up, she stubbornly dialed his extension. She didn't want to leave a message; she wanted to talk to him directly. A large fishing boat, the _Lucky Lady_ was docked near her lighthouse and all of the children were frightened. She wanted the situation dealt with.

"Hello?" Cid's weary voice finally came on the line.

"It's me," she said.

"Is something wrong?" he asked.

"Yes. Of course something's wrong. I wouldn't interrupt you otherwise." She was being rude, but the events of the past hour had her on edge.

"What happened?"

He was concerned now. They had a strange marriage in that they saw one another so infrequently. Cid had his job in Garden, and she had her orphanage. Both loved what they did, and that fact alone kept them physically apart. But Cid was on the verge of retirement now. And Edea was looking forward to the day when she would finally be able to share life's more mundane moments with her husband again.

"A fishing ship came in this morning," she told him. "They were netting just off the coast. And sometime early this morning, they caught a body."

"A body?" Cid asked. "You mean, a _human_ body?"

"Yes." Edea had seen it for herself and now doubted she'd ever scour the image from her mind.

"Has this person been dead very long?" he asked.

"I don't know." The body had been terribly bloated, almost unrecognizable. "I think something terrible happened to this person, Cid. He's been nearly ripped in half."

"Ripped in half?" Cid sounded weary again. "Edea…it's possible he died on a ship and the sharks got to his body after it was thrown overboard."

"Cid." She put cold steel into her voice. "This man hasn't been _touched_ by the sharks. And no one throws dead people off the side of ships anymore."

He sighed on the other end of the line.

"You have to send someone down here," she insisted. "His body was found in Centran waters. Garden is the only institution that can claim any amount of authority down here. We've got to at least investigate this a little. People don't just wash up every day. We need to find out who he is and return him to his family."

"What do the sailors think?" Cid asked.

"What?" Edea was surprised by his question.

"The sailors," he repeated. "What do they think of the body?"

"They're spooked."

Every man on the _Lucky Lady_ had gotten off the ship after dropping anchor. From what she'd been able to gather, they usually fished the warmer waters between Centra and Fisherman's Horizon but had traveled further south to explore the unknown bounty of the southern sea. They had a ship heavy with fish, so their trip had proven profitable if not lucky. But they were preparing to dump their entire cargo once the body was disposed of.

"They don't think it could have been sharks?" he asked persistently.

Edea groaned. "No. They don't." Sometimes it was impossible to get a point across to this man. He just didn't listen.

"All right," he said. "I'll send someone."' 

"Thank you. Try to get them here as soon as possible. We have it on ice at the moment but…I want this thing away from my children."

"I sent Rinoa and Squall to Esthar already," Cid said, thinking aloud. "But Seifer might enjoy this sort of investigation. I'll send him along with Quistis to keep him out of trouble and an officer from forensics. Quistis and Seifer have both been bugging me lately for a mission."

"Just get them here soon," Edea said, repeating herself as she gazed out her window at the high sails of the _Lucky Lady_. Never before had she looked out to sea and felt such unease. All of the children were crowded inside, grasping the window panes and peering out at the sailors mulling about the beach.

She blinked, still trying to work the dead man's image from her mind. Try as she might, she couldn't remove the gruesome picture.

"I'll page them as soon as I hang up and get them on their way," Cid promised. "Talk to you later. Love you."

She hung up and turned around in time to see the _Lucky Lady's _captain walk into her kitchen.

"Are they coming?" he asked hopefully.

Edea nodded. "They're sending someone right now."

Involuntarily, she shuddered. Whatever fate the poor man had met, she dreaded that it might spread across the water to her home. This orphanage was supposed to be a safe haven in an uncertain world. Now it had been invaded by the terrible visage of death. Each wave that washed over the shore did so with a new, ominous roar.

A dark feeling in the pit of her stomach told her that this one dead man was just a dismal beginning to something much more insidious.


	3. Postmortem

_"Take my security from me and maybe, finally, I won't have to know everything."_ -Lifehouse

Chapter 2: Postmortem

If teaching had taught Quistis Trepe one thing, it was how to deal with verbal confrontations in a more professional manner than resorting to name calling and placing blame. With all of her strength, she called upon that knowledge as Carson paced back and forth in front of her.

"You can't just leave," he said.

"It's not a matter of whether I can or not," Quistis pointed out. "This is a mission. I don't really have a choice."

She and Seifer had been paged by Cid after finishing their lunch together. Her prophetic statement about a mission coming up was still ringing in their ears as they rode the elevator up to his office. Apparently, a mutilated corpse had been caught in some fishing nets off the coast of Centra and they were being sent down with a forensics officer to investigate the death.

"But I have this perfect candle light dinner all set up for us at that fancy new restaurant in town," Carson said.

"I'm sorry." She shrugged. "Take someone else."

Carson's blue eyes narrowed. "Who else would I take to a romantic dinner for two?"

"Look, I'll be back in a flash." She walked up to him and put her hand on his shoulder. "We'll have dinner as soon as I get back. Okay?"

He sighed. "I really wish you'd take back your position as an instructor. I don't like it that you have to go off with no notice on missions like this."

"This mission is hardly dangerous," she said, choosing not to comment on returning to work as an instructor — a position which, despite all of her successes, hadn't been offered to her again.

He merely frowned in response. Strict to the rules, he was wearing his SeeD uniform though he was not technically on duty. Quistis almost never saw him dressed casually. It felt like having a sentry on guard as he stood by her bed and watched her pack for the trip, stuffing clothes and toiletries into a small pack.

"I'll miss you," he announced once she was done and leaned in to kiss her.

"I'll miss you, too," she replied.

"You'll call me?" he asked, touching his nose to hers and smiling.

"Sure."

Really, she doubted that she would think much about him at all. Quistis had never been very good at balancing her professional and personal life, especially on a mission where she usually got distracted, consumed by the details of whatever she was doing for days at a time. But this one didn't sound too intensive, so she figured she'd be able to find the time to phone her beau at some point.

"Don't let that idiot going with you botch the job," he told her, a hard line in his voice.

"Seifer's not an idiot," she replied. "He'll do fine."

Carson hated Seifer, which was a lot for a man who was otherwise so mild. Quistis wasn't sure where the animosity came from, but as far as she knew, Seifer had only a passing knowledge of who Carson Brecht even was. Certainly, if she hadn't begun dating him, Seifer wouldn't have even recognized the other man's name.

"I'll make new dinner reservations," Carson suddenly said. "Anywhere you want to go."

"Yeah. That sounds great." Quistis flattened her hands against his chest and pushed him away. "But I've really got to get going. We're supposed to be leaving in about five minutes."

He picked up her bag, even though she was perfectly capable of handling it on her own. "I'll walk with you to the Ragnarok."

At first, his chivalry had been sweet and novel to her. She wasn't used to being treated like something perishable and frail. Being a SeeD usually meant that she was treated as much the opposite of that. But there were times, like now, when the act made her feel like he was ignoring all that she had worked so hard her entire life to accomplish. Sizzling with irritation, she walked with him through Garden, her face plastered over with faux contentment.

Seifer was waiting outside the Ragnarok when they got there, and Carson pushed Quistis's bag into his hands.

"I've got tests to grade," he said, ignoring Seifer's puzzled look and turning to Quistis instead. "Call me when you get there and have a safe flight." He leaned in to kiss her again, but she turned her face so that it landed on her cheek. As he disappeared back through the gates of Garden, Seifer snickered.

Quistis turned and grabbed her bag from him. "What?"

"_That's_ your boyfriend?" he asked.

"Yes." She cocked her head to one side, resisting the urge to ask him what about that was funny.

"You're kidding. That anemic little shit?" Seifer shook his head and then motioned with one hand toward the Ragnarok. "The other girl's already in there."

"Don't say things like that about Carson," she said but followed obediently behind him into the waiting ship.

A perky, dark haired girl turned around in her seat when they walked in.

"Hi! I'm Kelly."

Quistis shook her hand and introduced herself as well.

"Oh, gosh. I know who you are!" Kelly blushed. "I wasn't lucky enough to get to take one of your classes, but I wish I could have. It's an honor to work with you."

"You're the person from forensics?" Quistis asked and sat down in the seat behind her.

"Yep. That's me." The girl's expression sobered for a moment. "From what I've heard, it's not a pretty sight down there. This guy's been at sea for God knows how long. Rigor mortis has probably already come and gone, and he's pretty bloated — not to mention nearly torn in half."

"Sounds lovely," Quistis replied, scrunching up her nose.

"Going to be a dirty job," Kelly agreed.

The forensics department was a new addition to Garden. The department head had a reputation for being an overly logical, cold hearted bastard and didn't mingle much with any of the other faculty. His personality had colored (perhaps unfairly) Quistis's perception of the students as well. So she was surprised that Kelly seemed like such a friendly, well-adjusted girl.

They all buckled up when the pilot took off, the green landscape below them giving way to flashing, blue seas. Quistis loved traveling by air. It was so much more comfortable than going everywhere by train. Of course, the Ragnarok was reserved for missions that required a certain amount of speed. Theirs, apparently, was immediate response.

"I still can't believe you're dating that guy," Seifer suddenly said as they crossed the Horizon Bridge into the southern hemisphere.

"What exactly do you have against him? Quistis asked, perturbed.

"Nothing." He shrugged. "I just didn't put a name and a face together when I heard about it. Now that I know who he is…I just don't see it."

"Why? What's so bad about him? He's sweet, intelligent—"

"Come on. You can't tell me you're really hot for that guy. He's such a…" he fumbled for the right word, "such a pansy."

"He is not!"

"And boring," Seifer added. "I bet women fall asleep while having sex with him."

Kelly turned around. "Who exactly are you talking about?"

"Instructor Brecht," Seifer said.

A small grimace flitted across Kelly's face but was gone by the time she turned to look at Quistis. "He's not _that_ bad. He's an instructor, so he's gotta be pretty sharp. Right?"

"Not necessarily," Seifer replied and began describing his theory of exactly how SeeDs got promoted to instructors.

Quistis had heard it all before, so she crossed her arms and fell silent. She knew firsthand the rigorous process by which Garden selected its staff and didn't feel like wasting her time defending it. Their conversation quickly changed track anyway, and Kelly was telling Seifer how she learned how to analyze blood spatter, her face alive with excitement. She obviously enjoyed what she did. Though Quistis couldn't see how anyone could like examining dead bodies and murder scenes for a living. Still, the forensics department was the fastest growing department in Garden.

"So, you two were both raised down here?" Kelly asked as they flew over Centra.

"Yeah." Quistis smiled, remembering her time at the orphanage, playing on the beach and amongst the fields of wild flowers.

"I was raised in Balamb by my uncle," Kelly replied.

They were a generation of orphans. Quistis didn't remember her real parents, and she supposed that Seifer didn't either. She'd been adopted once, briefly, but those were memories that she was content to let remain hazy and unaccessible.

The sun was setting behind the lighthouse when they arrived at the orphanage, giving the whole scene the glossy beauty of a postcard. The tall sails of the fishing boat glowed orange in the late evening light as it bobbed in calm seas.

Edea came jogging out of the house as they got off the Ragnarok. "I'm glad you're here," she said and embraced Quistis.

"We're just glad to get the hell out of Garden," Seifer said as she hugged him as well. "Where's this body at?"

"It's still on board the _Lucky Lady_," Edea said, knotting one hand in her long, black hair. "Give me a moment, I'll go get the captain."

She walked down the beach, a dark splotch on the tangerine landscape, and the three of them waited for her to return. Kelly was carrying a large, black box of equipment and had to set it down in the sand. The Ragnarok was plugged into several international databases and they were hoping that they could at least ID the body through dental records.

After a few long moments, Edea returned with a large, grizzled man at her side. He stuck out one thick, tattooed arm and shook Seifer's hand.

"We packed it in ice and left it one of the cargo holds. Didn't want to leave it with the fish," he said.

"We should have it out of your way by tomorrow," Kelly replied.

"That would be great. It's got my men real spooked. Kinda bad luck to haul in a dead man like that, you know. Can't blame them. Been feeling a little uneasy myself."

They followed him to his ship, past a large group of sailors sitting on the beach, all of them eating sandwiches that Quistis assumed Edea had made for them.

"Headmaster Cid told us that you thought the sharks and fish hadn't been feeding on the body," Quistis said, finding the idea hard to swallow.

"It's odd." The captain shrugged. "I've seen fish eaten things before — came across this whale once. Anyway, this guy just doesn't look it. Too clean."

The ship stank of fish, salt, and sweat. Its name was painted on the side in fat, white strokes. It was metal but had been planked over with wood to affect an antique air. The wood gave way to bare, unadorned walls as they descended into the belly of the lady which was lit by a line of naked light bulbs. The captain stopped in front of a door, swung it open, and gestured them inside, making no move or offer to accompany them.

Seifer went first, his stride long and confident. Kelly followed, and Quistis brought up the rear. The heap of ice in the corner of the room was already half melted and a foot was protruding out from underneath it, pale and swollen with clearly visible veins running through the arch.

Kelly set down her black box, then motioned to them. "Help me clear away the ice."

A little hesitant, Quistis walked up to the body and began removing large handfuls of ice. She cleared way spots around the face and torso, digging until her fingers were red and stiff with the cold. Taking a step back, she dried her hands on her skirt and surveyed what they had been unable to uncover so far.

It was grisly.

Part of his side was missing and his insides were hanging out in ragged, swollen chords. His entire body was waterlogged and bloated, giving his skin a pale, bluish tint. There was horror in his decay that Quistis had never felt before. Death was something she was familiar with — in her line of work, she came face to face with death on a regular basis. But red blood and fading heartbeats and wails of pain weren't the same as this. This was permanent, fetid, and ugly. And a frightening thing to find close to home. She understood why Edea had been so shaken when she'd called Cid.

Seifer, for all his bravado, was looking a little ill. He stood back for a moment, his eyes averted, and rubbed his hands on his pants.

"You okay?" Quistis asked. Kelly was already at work, mixing a bowl of dental plaster.

"Fine," he snapped. "Why?"

"You just look a little…bothered," she replied.

"Well…fuck." He let out a long breath. "Look at him! And the smell…holy Hyne."

"You know," Kelly said as she pried the man's mouth open and began slathering plaster over his teeth with her gloved index finger, "I think I'm going to have to agree with the captain. This body doesn't appear to have been fed upon. At least, not extensively."

"What makes you say that?" Quistis asked.

"It's hard to make a solid call with the remains in the state they're in," she said. "But these injuries here and here show signs of shearing. Fish, even sharks, tend to eat with a more rip and tear kind of method. There's a little bit of that down here by his feet. You see? But I don't think anything up here around his chest cavity has even been touched."

Quistis posed the obvious question. "So then, what did do this?"

Kelly shrugged. "No idea. Could have been anything."

From behind them, Seifer groaned softly. "I'm going to go…uh…go talk to the captain. See if he saw anything." He was covering his mouth with his sleeve as he left.

"I think this bothers him," Kelly said, gesturing to the body.

"Can't say I blame him," Quistis replied. Her own stomach was rolling uncomfortably we well. "I'm going to go see if he's okay. You need anything before I go?"

"Um…yeah. If you could hand me a plastic bag from my case, I should be good from here."

Quistis retrieved the bag, opened it for Kelly, and then excused herself. She found Seifer on deck, standing at the ship's railing and gripping it with both hands. A little of the color had come back into his face but he was still looking green.

"Hey." She walked up to him and brushed her hand along his arm.

"Hi."

"You okay?"

He didn't look at her. "Just great. Quit asking."

"Well," she said, listening to the way he was breathing heavily to settle his stomach, "I'm not feeling so hot."

He swore, then admitted, "Me too."

Pulling on his arm to hug him toward her, Quistis smiled. "Makes you human, Seifer. Kelly's the weirdo. That sort of thing is supposed to make you sick." She wanted to make him feel better, to turn him back into the impenetrable Seifer Almasy she knew.

"What do you think did it?" he asked. "An animal? A person?"

"I don't know. But whatever it turns out to be, it's up to you and me to make it right."

That thought seemed to settle him somewhat. He shook his head firmly and rubbed a hand over his stomach. "That stench is going to stick to me for days."

"Sounds to me like a long, hot shower is in order," Quistis replied. "You should go talk to Edea, arrange for us to stay the night."

"Yeah. Sure. Meet me back at the lighthouse. I'll get everything ready." Shoulders square and sporting a healthy glow once again, Seifer started back toward the orphanage. She wanted to go with him and never see the body stowed away in the cargo hold ever again. But Kelly was going to need some help. So she swallowed deeply, took a gulp of fresh air, and took the steps back down into the ship's belly.

Luckily, Kelly stopped her at the doorway.

"Hey. Could you do me a favor?" she asked, holding out a camera. "I need these photos sent back to Garden for processing and as soon as the mold finishes setting, I'm going to need to run his dental records, so we need to connect to the database in Deling City. You should be able to log in from the Ragnarok."

"Sure." Quistis took the camera, relieved to have a task unrelated to poking and prodding at the poor man's remains.

"Thanks!" A wide grin, incongruent with the horror surrounding it, crossed Kelly's pretty face, and she turned around to walk back into the little room, snapping a fresh pair of latex gloves over her small hands.


	4. Esthar International

Chapter 3: Esthar International

By mid-afternoon the next day, they had an ID on the body. He was twenty five year old Sascha Maurden of Winhill. Four years previously, he had disappeared without a trace, making their investigation suddenly much more interesting. Seifer was sitting on board the Ragnarok, reading through the missing person's report and sipping from a frosty glass of lemonade that Matron had brought him with lunch. In the top right corner of his screen was a photograph taken from Maurden's driver's license. He had been tall and dark with a serious face.

Seifer finished his lemonade and sighed, causing Quistis to glance over her shoulder at him. She was at another terminal, holding a small container and waiting for a reply from some sort of international DNA database in Esthar. They'd both been busy running errands for Kelly all morning.

"Find anything interesting?" she asked, setting down the little cup she was holding and walking over to him.

"No. But I haven't looked at his immunization records, birth certificate, or school transcript yet," he replied sarcastically. "Can't even imagine what sort of fascinating information I'll find in those."

"Are his parents still alive?" Quistis asked, leaning over his shoulder. "We should probably contact them."

"His mother is. She's still living in Winhill. She's the one who reported him missing."

"Poor lady." Quistis sighed, her breath puffing across the back of Seifer's neck. "What a horrible way to lose your child."

"I'm sure as hell not going to be the one to break the news," Seifer said and closed the missing person's report to bring up the transcript. "You can have that all to yourself."

"Gee. Thanks."

They both looked over the transcript for a moment and Seifer whistled through his teeth. "Wow. The guy was smart. Look at those classes — advanced physics, tons of bio. Looks like he was taking a bunch of extended studies, too. I'm surprised he didn't go to graduate school."

"So am I," Quistis replied. "Seems like he had everything in the world to look forward to. And he's not exactly the kind of person who you'd think would have many enemies. He'd hardly have time to make them." She pressed her lips together and tapped her fingers on the back of his chair. She smelled nice, Seifer noticed. Fresh and clean and sweet like she'd just gotten out of the shower.

A loud beep made her stand up straight again and walk back to her terminal.

"We got a reply," she said.

"About what, exactly?" Seifer asked, suspecting that Quistis had gotten the more interesting job while he'd been relegated to grunt work, stuck browsing through all of the guy's personal records.

"Kelly found some tissue she couldn't identify and thought it might have been from the attacker," Quistis explained as her fingers danced across the Ragnarok's controls.

"So she thinks there was a struggle," Seifer mused, framing the word that had been circling his mind all day: _murder._

"We don't know. But this might tell us."

Seifer couldn't help but smile. He'd wanted a real mission, and it was looking more and more now like the means behind this man's death were sinister. It wasn't armies marching or assassinations or war, but it was as close as he could come by in today's peaceful world. A part of him felt a brief flash of guilt for feeling grateful for Sascha Maurden's misfortune, but tracking down a cold blooded killer was just the sort of thing that SeeD had trained him for. His heart was hammering as he moved to sit down next to Quistis.

With a metallic chime, the Esthar International logo flashed across her screen for a moment before a running line of text spilled over it. They both leaned forward to read the message:

_Thank you for using Esthar International, specializing in worldwide information and resources._

_We regret to inform you that the DNA plate you sent to us has no match in our database. However, if your are in possession of a quality sample, we can perform a high detail scan which may allow us to make a match or narrow down your field of search. If such a sample is available, please forward it to:_

_Esthar International Biomedical Division_ _528 16th Street Left_ _Esthar City, Esthar_

Quistis's shoulders visibly sagged as she reached the end of the message. "Well, that got us nowhere. Actually sending them a sample and waiting for them to process the results could take weeks."

"The guy's dead. He isn't going anywhere," Seifer pointed out. "We've got time to spare. Besides, we've got the fastest mode of transportation on the planet right here. We could just drop it off ourselves."

Quistis paused. "That's a really good idea."

"Damn right it is."

"No, really." She shouldered him out of the way as she stood up. "We've got to drop the body off in Deling City for the autopsy. You and I could fly to Esthar while Kelly is busy with that."

"What can I say?" Seifer shrugged. "I'm a genius."

"I wouldn't go _that_ far," Quistis replied.

They'd both been sitting in the Ragnarok for hours, so she stretched her arms out above her head and arched her back until it popped, then bent over to smooth out her skirt. They were on official business, so they were both wearing their SeeD uniforms. Seifer hadn't worn his since the day he'd finally passed his final exam. It was now uncomfortably tight fitting around his shoulders and arms.

"I'm going to go talk to Kelly," Quistis said. "Let her know the plan."

She waved as she vanished through an automatic door, leaving Seifer to swivel back around in his chair. He thought about Sascha Maurden. The guy seemed innocent enough. Seifer couldn't quite imagine a scenario where a guy from Winhill would find himself floating face down in the ocean off Centra. There had to be something more to this death.

Right now it was a mystery and growing thicker by the moment.

0 0 0

It took all three of them to haul the still water logged body back to the Ragnarok. Once the sailors had scrubbed down their ship, they set sail again and dumped their entire catch out at sea. Not long after that, with the big, yellow body bag tucked away in one of their holds, the Ragnarok took off as well. Their pilot had been called back to Garden, so Quistis handled the controls, relying on the auto-pilot for much of the flight while she sat down and wrote a message to her boyfriend.

"I managed to gather quite a bit of tissue," Kelly said, interrupting the silence. "There should be enough for them to make a match, anyway. It's strange that they didn't make one in the first place. I mean, they should have been able to reply with animal, mineral, or vegetable, you know? What will you two do if the results come back and it is dragon hide or something? Case closed?"

"It wasn't an animal that abducted him from Winhill," Quistis pointed out.

The Ragnarok lurched slightly as they slowed down ahead of their destination. Quistis turned off the auto-pilot and took over the controls again.

"I have to admit," Kelly said, shaking her head. "I really don't think a person did this. This was messy. The poor guy was practically disemboweled. It's a lot easier, if you want to kill someone, to just slash their throat or crack their skull or go for the heart. Who kills someone by gutting them?"

"You'd be surprised," Seifer replied.

She looked up at him, her eyes wide. He liked the way that terrible knowledge and naive innocence seemed to co-mingle in her.

"I was looking at his dental molds last night," she said, the surprise leaving her face as she steered the conversation back into an area where she was more comfortable. "His enamel has worn down significantly since his last x-ray."

"Meaning?" Seifer asked.

"Meaning he was probably eating roughage. Unprocessed, raw foods. Which points to somewhere away from civilization. I can't confirm that though. Unfortunately, we lost the contents of his stomach postmortem."

Seifer grimaced at that unpleasant thought.

"Hold on back there," Quistis said from up front. "We're landing."

No one wanted to stay behind to guard the body against anything that might happen to it, so Quistis secured the Ragnarok before they left. The sun hadn't even set yet, but every light in Deling City was on, creating a twinkling expanse of concrete and neon on the horizon. Seifer loved this city. He'd spent all of his summers here as a cadet and was eager to walk the familiar streets again.

As usual, Deling City was alive and brilliant. After being in Centra, it was an overwhelming but welcome change. The streets were humming with traffic and the sidewalks were choked with people going to and from the downtown shops and bars. Quistis led the way to the hospital. The white, blocky building stood out against the grungy, glittery cityscape and looked like it had been dipped in bleach. The scrubbed appearance didn't end with the outer walls, and when Seifer walked through the revolving doors, his senses were assaulted with the characteristic scent of heavy antiseptics.

A woman looked up from behind the information counter when they walked in, a pair of glasses perched on the end of her nose.

"Can I help you?" she asked. She sounded like someone who'd smoked her entire life.

"We're from Balamb," Quistis replied and flashed her SeeD badge. "I called yesterday and talked to someone here about having an autopsy performed."

"Oh." The woman shoved the chewed up pencil she was holding in hair and began tapping on her keyboard. "You're going to want Dr. Kleinger then, the coroner. I think he left some forms here somewhere for you to fill out. Hold on…" She continued searching while Quistis tapped her fingers impatiently against the counter.

"We need transportation to get the body through town, too," she announced.

"Oh, he'll take care of that." The woman shook her head, pinched her lips together, and finally came up with the paperwork. Quistis handed it to Kelly to fill out while the doctor was paged to the information desk.

"Boy. Just when I think this mission is going to get exciting, it manages to get even more boring," Seifer said to Quistis while they waited.

"Better than sitting around Garden watching dust collect," she pointed out.

They stood side by side, rocking on their heels and looking up at the high ceiling while Kelly continued to work through the extensive paperwork.

"Want to play cards?" Quistis asked after a while.

"Yeah," Seifer replied, a little surprised at her suggestion. She was one of the best Triple Triad players in all of Balamb Garden. Seifer, on the other hand, had never devoted much time to the game and didn't think he had a deck strong enough to beat her. Still, it was something to pass the time while they waited, and he was curious what cards she might have.

They sat down, each selecting a hand from their decks. Quistis grinned as she turned over her cards, most of them shining back with very familiar faces. She had Squall's card, Rinoa's, Irvine's — even his own. Seifer's hand, however, featured a rather strong showing of ruby dragons and tonberries. He never played his prized possession: the chubby chocobo. Something about the slovenly bird amused him and he wouldn't risk losing it.

Quistis had him easily whipped and was claiming one of his ruby dragon cards to augment her own pile of them when Kleinger finally showed up.

"Sorry. I was in the middle of something," he said by way of an explanation. "You're the SeeDs from Balamb?"

"That's us," Seifer said.

Kelly offered the doctor the clipboard with all the completed paperwork, introduced herself, and the two immediately descended into a jargon filled conversation about the condition of the body and Kelly's findings so far. Seifer and Quistis followed them through the hospital and, eventually, found themselves seated in the back of a plain, white van.

The van rattled down the city streets and eventually out into the falling evening. The Ragnarok loomed on the horizon, its dragon shape eerily lifelike as it glowed red in the evening light. Kelly and Dr. Kleinger led the way up to the craft, still talking shop, though their conversation had taken a more personal bend on the ride out of the city.

"I went to medical school with him," Dr. Kleinger said, referring to one of Kelly's old instructors. "For a while, to get a little extra money to pay the bills, I worked in the morgue with him doing organ harvesting."

"Uh oh." Kelly laughed. "I think I know where this is going…"

Seifer didn't, and he was glad to never have to know as the two disappeared into the Ragnarok. He waited outside by the van. Aside from the dead body and the company, the evening was really quite lovely with the heady scent of spring flowers riding on a low breeze. It flushed away some of the salty sea scent that had permeated Seifer's skin over the past two days.

Kelly and Dr. Kleinger weren't gone long before they emerged again with the yellow body bag on top of a gurney. When they stuffed it into the open back of the white van, Seifer couldn't help but heave a sigh of relief.

Turning sharply toward him, Kelly said, "Hurry back with the DNA results. Okay?"

"Don't worry," Quistis said, smiling reassuringly. "We'll get them back here as soon as humanly possible."

"Don't let those Esthar guys give you the run around," she replied. "Even if they can't find an exact match, I want the nearest one. In fact, they should be able to prepare an entire report. I want everything they can find out about it."

"Right." Seifer and Quistis both nodded.

They said their goodbyes and went their separate ways. The white van went back into the bird's nest from which it came, and Seifer and Quistis got back on board the Ragnarok. Seifer followed her up to the bridge where she sat down at the controls and set the auto-pilot for Esthar. They wouldn't arrive until well after nightfall, but that was a blessing in disguise. Esthar was beautiful at night, much more so than Deling. It was still overwhelming, still luminous and busy, but there wasn't quite as much disquieted spangle.

Take-off was rough, as most of Quistis's were. But the flight smoothed out once they had reached altitude.

"How much do you want to bet that Odine has his hands in Esthar International?" Quistis asked, plunking a few keys on one of the panels to fully engage the auto-pilot.

"Never pegged you as the gambling type," Seifer replied.

She shrugged. "It's not really much of a gamble." With a yawn, she pulled the clip out of the back of her hair and ran her fingers through her kinked tresses.

"Speaking of gambles," he drawled, smiling. "We have a while before we get to Esthar, and we still haven't had that rematch with magic."

She stretched out in her seat and grinned. "Right here on the bridge?"

"Don't worry," he said. "I promise I won't whip you too badly."

Her blue eyes narrowed dangerously. "You're on."


	5. Stuck in the Middle

Chapter 4: Stuck in the Middle

A man dressed in a floor length pastel robe stood like a granite statue outside the Esthar International Biomedical building. A shiny little double helix rotated on the sign, complete with glowing balls to represent base proteins. The only sign that the man in the robe saw Seifer and Quistis approaching was a slight arch to one of his eyebrows. The couple stopped in front of him, not quite sure what to do.

"Um…hi," Quistis offered.

He nodded curtly, his head snapping up and down like toys soldier's.

"We have a sample that we need to drop off for testing," she explained.

Around them, Esthar was humming softly with the sound of hydraulics and murmuring voices. The pace of life in Esthar, despite all of their technology, had always been more leisurely than other places. Transportation was swift and simple — one had only to find the nearest hover station and punch in a destination. These were especially busy now, early in the morning, but no one waiting around them seemed to be in any hurry.

"You can drop it off at the desk," the man said.

Quistis nodded and motioned for Seifer to follow her. The building's automatic doors slid open as they approached and a wave of cool air wafted out to mingle with the warm morning. Seifer had insisted that the building wouldn't be open so early, but nothing in Esthar ever seemed to close. The city had been isolated from the outside world for a long time, and the normal nine to five workday didn't exist. Laguna Loire, not being one of the most ambitious men on the planet, had tried hard change that. But in the end, there wasn't much he could do. Esthar wasn't willing to change.

"This is a nice little dig," Seifer said as they walked inside. The lobby had a high, arched ceiling supported by elaborate columns, and the floor was made of shiny, marble tile. One man was sitting behind a huge, wrap-around desk, humming happily. He was wearing a pair of thick glasses that practically vanished underneath his dense mop of curly, dark hair.

"Hiya," he said with a grin. "How may I help you?"

Three large pins were stuck to the front of his robe. One of them displayed his name, Harold. The second proudly proclaimed that he was the Esthar International Biomedical employee of the month. The final pin, bigger and flashier than the other two, had a double helix with the words "Esthar International: A New Era in Technology" printed along the edges.

"I'm with Balamb Garden," Quistis explained. "We sent in a DNA type earlier and got inconclusive results, so we've brought a sample to be analyzed."

"Your name?" Harold asked.

"Quistis Trepe."

Harold nodded, squinting his eyes, and typed something into the computer. His teeth worked at his bottom lip, finding a fitted groove that showed it was something he did out of habit.

"Okay." He printed off a label and took the sample container from Quistis. "Your case is going to be handled by Aaron Neperin. We should have results for you within a week. We're usually a little faster than that, but we've been pretty booked lately. Will the two of you be staying here in Esthar?"

"Yes. We can be reached at Esthar Hotel Left."

"Great." Harold smiled brightly and handed them a card he'd filled out. "Enjoy your stay, and thank you for using Esthar International."

They walked out together, the humid morning a shock to their systems after leaving the air conditioned building. Quistis rubbed her arms which were tingling with gooseflesh at the temperature change and still aching from casting. She and Seifer had spent most of the flight combating one another. But the pain was worth it; she'd kicked his ass.

"What are we going to do stuck here for a week?" he asked.

"Hopefully it won't take that long," Quistis replied and looked around at the luminescent city surrounding them. There had to be plenty to do here. "Are you hungry? We could get something to eat. Check-in at the hotel isn't until eleven."

"Sure. I'm starving."

They found a restaurant that wasn't too busy and sat down together. Seifer ordered more than Quistis thought he could eat — a stack of five pancakes, hash browns with gravy, a heaping side of scrambled eggs, and several strips of sizzling bacon.

"You could have ordered more, you know," he said when he noticed her looking longingly across the table at his plate. The plain oatmeal with fruit she'd ordered had seemed appealing until she'd started eating it. Now her stomach was rumbling, demanding something of more flavor and substance.

"I guess I'm not that hungry," she lied.

Gamely, she ate the rest of her fruit and dipped her spoon again into the gelatinous goo that was forming as her oatmeal cooled. Seifer raised a doubtful eyebrow. Then, without a word, he pushed his plate to the middle of the table. Quistis didn't immediately recognize the gesture. So when she continued to stir the contents of her bowl, he waved a hand over his hash browns and snapped, "Eat!"

There was just enough for the two of them. He'd already drizzled blueberry syrup over all of the pancakes, and though it wasn't usually Quistis's favorite, it tasted delicious.

She sighed as they left and patted her stomach. "That was really good. What was the name of that place? We should go back tomorrow." Checking her watch, she saw that they still had over two hours before check-in time at the hotel. "We've still got some time to waste. What do you want to do?"

"With you?" he asked, arching an eyebrow. "I don't know. First, you beat me up. Then you eat my breakfast. How about you tell me?"

"We could visit Rinoa and Squall up at the Presidential Palace," she suggested after some thought.

"Are you serious?"

"Yeah. Why?"

Seifer scoffed. "I don't know what irritates me more: watching Puberty Boy cry over the fact that his daddy left him, or watching Laguna fall all over himself trying to impress Squall."

"Okay. What do you suggest, then?" she asked.

"Something low impact. I'm tired. And I'm full." He looked around, then pointed across the street at a movie theater that was just opening for the day. "How about we catch a matinee?"

"Okay." Quistis followed him across the street, curious. Balamb didn't have a movie theater. And she'd never had much spare time to watch any of the films the Garden library kept stocked. So she had no idea what might be playing in a big city like Esthar. There weren't any framed posters hanging outside, just a truncated list of titles and ratings that told her Esthar liked its movies clean — almost everything playing was suitable for children.

Inside, the theater was empty except for the people working there, kids mostly in their late teens, not much younger than Quistis and Seifer. Popcorn was popping, filling the lobby with the smell of hot butter and salt.

"Hey." Seifer approached the kid behind the ticket counter. "Anything good playing?"

"Everything on the wall," he said and pointed to a string of posters behind him. Quistis glanced at them and had to cover her mouth to keep from laughing. Every single movie on the wall was well over twenty years old. And all of them, from _Clash of the Behemoths _to _Wendigo_, starred Laguna Loire. He was in various costumes and a lot younger, but still perfectly recognizable as the President — as Squall's father.

Seifer stood in silence for a moment, then glanced at Quistis. "How about _The Sorceress's Knight_?"

She was surprised. "Really?"

"Sure. Have you seen it? I really liked it as a kid. It's a classic."

She had to shake her head. "Can't say that I have."

"We'll take two for _Sorceress's Knight_," he said to the kid and pulled a few gil out of his pocket. They bought soda and popcorn as well before heading into the theater where they sat alone for several minutes until the lights went down.

The movie wasn't very good. Laguna's acting was stilted, the costumes were historically inaccurate, and plot was contrived and full of holes. But Seifer never glanced away from the screen. It surprised Quistis that a story about romance and self-sacrifice would appeal to him since she'd always seen him as too self-centered to appreciate either. She tried to imagine him as a little boy sitting in his dorm room at Garden, watching this movie, and wondered if that was what had driven him so hard early in life. He'd been the best gunbladist at Garden by wide margin for several years before Squall had finally eclipsed him.

"Just as good as I remember," he said when the credits rolled.

"I had my doubts," Quistis admitted. "But it was sort of endearing."

"The end, right?" he said. "And the dragon. That just fucking _floored _me as a kid. I saved some of the hide from the first one I killed. Had a wallet made out of it." He fished it out of his pocket and showed it to her.

Exhaustion was beginning to set in when they got to their hotel. It was still half an hour before check-in time, but the woman at the desk told them their room was ready and gave them the key anyway. It was on the fourth floor with a balcony that overlooked the mall. Quistis walked in and pulled the curtains against the bright sunlight streaming in.

"Holy Hyne," Seifer said and flopped down face-first on one of the beds. "It's about time. Been waiting for this all day." He drew one of the pillows up under his head and kicked off his shoes.

Quistis wanted to say something before he fell asleep, something like _I had a nice time_ or _I really enjoyed our day together_, but the day was only half over and everything that came to mind sounded too much like what you'd say to someone at the end of a date. Still, she had genuinely enjoyed spending time with him: the battle on the Ragnarok, breakfast, and the movie. She was surprised how much.

She pulled back the blankets on her own bed and sat down with her back to him.

"Seifer?"

He didn't reply, asleep already.

She pulled off her boots and SeeD jacket, wriggled quickly out of her skirt, and climbed into bed with just her underwear and the white tank top she wore under her uniform on. Although she wasn't sure she'd be able to sleep during the day, it wasn't long before the sound of his steady breathing faded and deep slumber overtook her.

0 0 0

Only a day and a half into their stay in Esthar, Quistis and Seifer found themselves once again standing in front of the Esthar International Biomedical building. They company's secretary had left them a message at the hotel desk that morning saying that their sample had been processed and a report was ready. It had been completed several days early, and Quistis had to call Laguna to cancel her lunch date with him, Squall, and Rinoa. She wasn't entirely regretting it and was glad that they were going to get back on the mission. Seifer was already running out of things to keep him occupied, and as he got more restless he also became more difficult to be around.

A woman was sitting at the front desk this time.

"Dr. Neperin has been waiting for you," she told them once Quistis introduced herself. "Wait right here. I'll page him for you."

"I thought we were just picking up a report," Seifer said as they sat down in the comfortable waiting area and the woman's voice crackled over the intercom. "Now we gotta meet with some idiot? I thought this was going to be quick and we could get out of here." The long pauses in their investigation were beginning to wear on him. They hadn't been trained for these kind of missions. As mercenaries, their schooling had been comprised mostly of how to enter a situation that had already gone critical. Seifer liked to run in and take action. Unfortunately, that wasn't always possible anymore.

He sighed.

"We can't do anything until we find out the facts," Quistis pointed out, knowing it would do little to ease him. "I don't know that we're ever going to get anywhere with this mission. If Kelly doesn't find something in the autopsy or we don't get much from the scientists here…then there won't be anything else we can do."

"Then what?" Seifer asked. "The case is just pushed under the rug?"

"We'll hand it over to Winhill to take care of," she replied.

"So, we're not going to even bother to see if there's anyone who wanted this guy dead?"

Quistis shook her head. "Garden isn't in this to act as police officers."

Seifer grunted and turned his face away. He didn't have to like it — the decision wasn't hers to make. Sascha Maurden's death was as tragic as it was puzzling. But he was only one man. And in Garden, one man was an erasable, acceptable number. If they hit any major dead ends, Garden would recall them rather than lose more money on the mission.

A man approached them. "Are you Miss Trepe?"

"Yes. You must be Dr. Neperin. This is my partner, Seifer Almasy."

The two men shook hands and Neperin motioned for them to follow him. He was a little homely with a small, sickly build and limp, brown hair. The pallor of his skin made it obvious that he rarely left his lab. Quistis walked behind him, watching the sway of his bleached white lab coat.

Seifer elbowed her. "Reminds me of Instructor Brecht," he said.

"He does not," she whispered and rolled her eyes.

"So, where exactly did you get this sample?" Neperin asked as he stepped into a cluttered office. Seifer and Quistis found two chairs in amongst the rubble and Quistis crossed her legs primly when she sat down.

"We were told that you have a report to give us," she said, ignoring his question. "When we first sent in a type, we got back inconclusive results."

Neperin hesitated. "They're still inconclusive, unfortunately. But I do have a lot that I can tell you about this…very extraordinary sample." He turned on his computer and brought up several images that looked like blurry barcodes. "These are DNA sequences of several different monsters: t-rexaur here, ruby dragon, snow lion, blue dragon, hexadragon. This one here is the DNA we managed to pull from the sample you sent us." He pointed to each of them, using his middle finger.

"So it's animal tissue," Seifer said.

"Yes. Definitely animal," Neperin replied. "That's not what's interesting about it. You see, usually we don't compare the entire DNA code. Normally, we're able to make a match by just looking for a few, very specific sequences that are individual to certain species. The reason I can't give you a precise match is because I got more than one."

Quistis frowned. "What's that mean?"

"This sample has gene sequences identical to those in several animals." He gestured to the monitor. "All of these. They're monsters from all over the world. And we're not talking about a passing similarity…some distant cousin. This sample seems to have genetic material that was directly lifted from all of these different species and stitched together. It almost looks engineered."

"You're sure that it's not just something rare?" Quistis asked. "There's a lot of dragons in there. You're positive this isn't a kind of dragon?"

"Yes. Absolutely. I cross checked this every way that I know how." He shook his head. "This is definitely something new. We're still working on completely decoding many of these monsters's genomes. So I can't tell you exactly what sort of traits this thing would even have. But it looks extremely resilient."

"Resilient to what?"

"I don't know exactly. But the sequences it has from these other animals are all ones that are very important — shared by every single member of the species. Dr. Odine has a theory that these bits of genetic code are what give these monsters their immunity to certain types of para-magic."

He paused, looking at the two stunned SeeDs.

"Really, it's quite remarkable. Where did you get this?"


	6. Puzzle Pieces

Chapter 5: Puzzle Pieces

"It just doesn't make any sense." Seifer shook his head, watching the fluffy clouds passing below them out the windows of the Ragnarok. "This guy disappears from Winhill and is missing for years. Suddenly he's found in the ocean near Centra, and he's been killed by some previously unknown super monster that's immune to all magical attacks. In what way do those two things fit together?"

Quistis propped her feet up on the arm of his chair and leaned back heavily in her own. They had left Esthar immediately after their meeting with Neperin and were on their way back to Deling City to deliver his results to Kelly. The doctor had been visibly upset at their unwillingness to tell him where the sample had come from. But he probably had no idea that neither of them had any real information to give him. Neperin's report indicated that the monster was not aquatic, which ruled out Maurden being killed after entering the water. But if he had been killed on dry land, that left them with the questions of where, why he'd been there, and how he'd ended up in the south sea. No answers were forthcoming.

Seifer turned to her, noticed her feet sitting up on the arm of his chair, and pushed them down.

"Don't be such a grouch," she said and put her feet back up.

"I'm not."

"If something's bugging you, you should talk about it. Not take it out on me," she said. "Besides, we both know that in an open fight, I'd win."

He sent her a long, irritated look. "You wanna try me? No 'just magic' rules this time."

"No. I just want to hear what you're thinking."

Normally, she would have let the issue drop. But she was in a good mood and feeling talkative. Seeing as Seifer was her only source of conversation until they landed in Galbadia, she wasn't left with many other options. On top of that, she was genuinely interested in what was going through his mind. She'd never spent much time with him before, and their short time in Esthar had done a lot to ease the tension she'd felt about being around him. Now she wanted camaraderie; she wanted him to open up.

"This whole mission is just frustrating," he said. "First, we have this body found drifting in the biggest ocean on the planet. Yet, none of the fish have touched him. And then it turns out he was killed on dry land. But, years before he meets up with this mysterious land animal no one has ever heard of, he's kidnapped from his hometown. So, what sort of scenario can that possibly leave us with? He ran off the join the circus and was tragically killed by his mutant monster? We're not trained for this kind of thing."

"You suppose he ran away?"

Seifer rested a gloved hand on her foot and grinned sarcastically. "Why would he run away from Winhill? It's such an exciting place."

"It might be a good lead," she pointed out. "So far, we've been assuming that he was taken against his will because that's how his mother reported it. But maybe he wanted to go. Maybe that's why he was gone so long without anyone hearing from him."

"He was old enough to go wherever he wanted," Seifer replied. "Who the hell checks in with their mommy when they're in their twenties? Aside from Zell, I guess."

"We wouldn't know. But I think if I had one, I'd tell her what was up in my life. I'd keep in contact at least."

Seifer squeezed her toes and seemed to think about this for a moment, his green eyes working over an invisible knot in the air. Quistis had kicked her shoes off, and the way his thumb was pressing into the pad of her foot felt good.

"Maybe he wasn't that close to his mom," Seifer postulated. "Or maybe he didn't want to tell her about wherever he was doing. Like, maybe he thought she wouldn't approve."

"Sascha Maurden may have been a bad boy," Quistis replied, looking at Garden's own resident bad boy in a way she never thought she would. He was playing absent-mindedly with her feet, his body relaxed and his eyes half closed. It wasn't often that Seifer wasn't tense.

He smiled and shook his head. "Nah. I don't buy that. He'd have been eaten alive in a pack of teenage boys."

"Why do you say that?" she asked.

"His transcript." Seifer shrugged. "He applied himself way too much — all those advanced classes. You can't be a _bad boy_ and…you know…care. You've gotta be a little…" He struggled to find the right word.

Quistis could think of quite a few could complete his sentence, not all of them flattering. "A little bit of a rebel?" she finally supplied.

"Sure." He shrugged. "I just mean, this guy doesn't seem like the sort who would buck authority or throw his life away."

"Well…" Quistis pulled her feet from his grasp, her toes warm where he'd been gripping them. "People aren't always who they seem to be."

The Ragnarok's cabin was brightly lit by the yellow sunlight of the upper atmosphere, and Seifer looked resplendent.

"How long until we land?" he asked.

"Another hour, at least," she replied, not really sure where they were as the auto-pilot handled the flight.

"Great. Not enough time to get in a decent nap, too much time to wait it out." He stood up and stretched, every cord in his lanky body tightening and quivering. Quistis watched him, knowing that she shouldn't. Even thinking about Seifer as a physical and sexual being was wildly taboo. The knowledge that she had a boyfriend at home, and that this was a man she shouldn't feel anything for, heightened the tingling in her toes and in her belly. Seifer had a presence that men like Carson couldn't even touch.

"Hey." Seifer laughed and leaned over one of the Ragnarok's panels, interrupting her thoughts. "We got a message from your _boyfriend. _And it's fucking hilarious. You gotta read this."

0 0 0

Seifer handed the DNA report from Esthar International to Kelly as he and Quistis entered the coroner's office. Kelly's hair was half tied back, half falling wildly about her face, and her mascara was smeared below her eyes, indicating that she'd been more than a day between showers. She took the manilla envelope from him like a snake striking at its prey.

"Did you find out anything interesting?" she asked. "We've got some mysteries that need solved."

"Welcome to the club," Seifer replied with a snort.

After the long flight, he'd been relieved to finally arrive in Deling City. Especially after the quasi-friendship that he'd somehow managed to establish with Quistis had abruptly dissipated with the interference of Carson Brecht. He didn't even know the man, but Seifer was disliking the stuffy instructor more and more every day. He still didn't understand what Quistis saw in the guy. That letter he'd written her made him sound like a major league wuss. And Quistis was beautiful; she could have her pick of guys.

Kelly flipped through the pages of the report, scanning over them with tired and non-comprehending eyes. Those same eyes turned up to Quistis and Seifer, looking a little glazed.

"Inconclusive? Again?"

Quistis shifted her weight to one foot. "Not entirely. They determined that the tissue belongs to an as of yet undiscovered species. A land animal…maybe a hybrid type of dragon."

"Oh…" Kelly pushed hair out of her face. "I suppose that helps us a little."

"Care to share?" Seifer asked. The entire case bothered him. None of the things they were discovering fit together, none of the answers were those he'd been anticipating or had hoped for. He felt like he was being forced to work on the outside fringes of a puzzle, unable to see the rest of the picture. They were still missing something fundamental.

"Well," Kelly began, "we estimate that he'd been in the water for four to five days before being picked up by the fishing boat. We can't narrow it down more than that since we don't know exactly how long the sailors had him out of the water or how long it took them to get the body on ice. Anyway, with the prevailing currents in the south sea, it's likely that he was pulled in toward the continent from one of the islands south of Centra."

"There's nothing out there. All those islands are deserted," Quistis replied.

Kelly shrugged. "If it was a land animal, that's the only place it could be. Speaking of which, we also discovered why the body wasn't being fed upon: poison."

"Poison?" both Quistis and Seifer echoed.

"Yeah. All of the tissue surrounding the wound in his chest was flooded with some kind of reptilian poison. It was still eating away at the tissue. He had some blood pooled in his heart, but it was free of toxins, so he must have died quickly after he was attacked. Whatever this animal is, it packs one hell of a punch."

"Shit." Seifer reeled. "So, this thing's not just super strong and resilient to magic, it's poisonous too?"

"Looks like it," Kelly replied.

Quistis shook her head. "I'm getting the feeling there was a lot more to Sascha Maurden than meets the eye."

"His mother was contacted by the hospital," Kelly announced. "We could talk to her."

Seifer nodded. "Great idea. Nobody knows a guy like his mother."

"Exactly," Kelly agreed. "She's staying here in Deling until we release the body. I'll give her a call and have her come in."

Seifer made himself at home in the corner's office, propping his feet up on the cluttered desk and leaning back dangerously far in his chair while Kelly made the call, her voice echoing off the taupe filing cabinets lining the walls. The room had a decidedly tight feeling. It was small and filled to the brim, sparse with decor not related to death and paperwork. Quistis looked uncomfortable as she leaned against the wall and crossed her arms.

"So, where's what's-his-name?" Seifer asked once Kelly hung up.

"Who?"

"The coroner."

"Oh. I don't know. We still have jurisdiction though, so we don't have to wait for him. I told Mrs. Maurden to meet us at the information desk. She's coming right away."

Quistis led the way through the labyrinthine hospital hallways back to the information desk, relying on her apparently innate ability to navigate and path-find. Utterly disoriented by the lack of windows and the constant corners, Seifer was certain they were lost until he spotted the receiving area through an open doorway.

They waited in front of the information desk for at least fifteen minutes, Seifer tapping his gunblade against the tile, before a squat woman in a floral print dress waddled through the hospital's rotating doors. Her dark eyes were riveted on the three, and as she walked over to them, Quistis stood up.

"Mrs. Maurden?" she asked, offering her hand.

The woman nodded, but kept her arms at her sides. Instead, she looked at Seifer and said, "You're the SeeDs who found my Sascha?"

"We are," Quistis replied, though Mr. Maurden was still not looking at her. "We'd like to talk to you about your son, if that's okay."

"I'm sure you do," Mrs. Maurden barked. Holding her hip, she sat down and motioned for Seifer to come sit next to her. "I've talked to these two quite enough — the call in the middle of the night, 'We've found your son. He's dead.' No feeling at all. No sympathy. But you look like a gentleman. What's your name?"

"Seifer," he replied, uncomfortable. Quistis and Kelly were both smiling, not even trying to hide their amusement.

"Sit down," she said, patting the seat next to her again. "I'll talk to you. But I won't talk to these two so that they can cut up my poor Sascha some more."

"That's fine," Quistis said suddenly. "We have some…some tests to go over. So you can sit here and talk to Seifer for as long as you'd like. Okay?"

"Job's all yours, Seifer," Kelly added and the two walked away. Seifer's stomach dropped at the idea of being left alone with the woman and he stood, more uneasy than he would have been facing down a t-rexaur, not sure what to say. Reluctantly, he sat down, and Mrs. Maurden's hand snaked out to grab his knee.

"So, dear." She squeezed, the bulky rings on her hand pressing into his skin. "What is it you'd like to know about my Sascha?"

"Well…" He shifted, wondering if there was any polite way to get out of her grasp. "You reported that your son was kidnapped."

"Yes. Of course he was. I went over all this with the police back then — it's in their report. One day, he just didn't come home. And he wouldn't have gone anywhere without telling me. He wouldn't have left on his own. So someone must have taken him." She looked sad now. "He was a smart boy, but kept to himself mostly. Never really had any good friends. It was just me. I was all he had. He wouldn't have left me."

Seifer wondered if maybe their relationship was the other way around, but asked instead, "Who do you think might have taken him?"

"There were these people," she started, "hooligans he met at school. Fanatics. They left town around the same time, so I always thought they had something to do with it. Probably some sort of cult. Sweet Hyne, you don't think they…what do you call it…_sacrificed_ him to some pagan god, do you?"

"Uh…no. I don't think so," Seifer replied. "What kind of fanatics were these?"

"The usual." She shrugged, as if that explained everything. "Pet cause they couldn't see past. They were trying to get Sascha to join up with them. But I wasn't worried about him. I knew he'd do what was right."

"Do you have any idea what their cause was?" Seifer asked.

"Never bothered to find out. I just knew from the look of them, from the way they talked. I'm sure that Sascha said no, and they took it personal."

Seifer shook his head. "Well, whatever your son got himself involved it, it was bad."

"You'll find them, right?" Mrs. Maurden asked, leaning in close. "These men who killed my son have got to be punished. We can't just leave them out there, kidnapping people's babies like this."

"Maybe if you could tell us a little more about them…" Seifer offered. She hadn't given him very much to work with, though he wondered how a group of "fanatics" might fit in with a monster. That they were apparently recruiting smart young men like Maurden definitely pointed to something sinister.

"I just want my son back. It was years ago when Sascha left. I don't remember anymore…they were just thugs. I didn't want them around the house so I didn't see them much. You people've got to know something about them. Don't you? Sascha was a good boy. They killed him for it. I know it. When can I have my son back?"

Seifer shrugged. "I don't know. Once they're done with the autopsy, I guess."

"You'll be the one to call me, to let me know?" she asked and squeezed his knee again. "I don't know if I could take it if it wasn't you."

"Sure," he promised, knowing that when the time came he could easily pass off the task to someone else. He didn't particularly care about Sascha or his mother, and didn't want to see this woman again. This wasn't his thing.

"You're a good man, Mr. Seifer," she said. "A kind and gentle man. Bless you."

As she got up and walked out of the hospital, Seifer sat back in his chair and digested what he'd heard, able to think clearly now that an old woman's hand wasn't groping him. If Sascha had been mixed up with a bad crowd, Seifer thought that he probably left with them voluntarily, not abducted like his mother thought. If he'd been abducted, it would haven't taken so many years for his body to show up. And if that path had led him to an island in the southern sea, into the maw of a terrible, monster…then Seifer figured Sascha Maurden might not be as much of a victim as he appeared to be.


	7. Coming and Going

Chapter 6: Coming and Going

Quistis bit into a piece of toast slathered with butter and raspberry jam as she dialed the phone with one hand. The receiver was propped between her head and shoulder. In a strange way, the toast was more soothing than sleep had been. There was something simple and right about toast in the morning, something about the creamy butter and tart fruit spread that reminded her of being a little girl, safe and sound on the beach at the orphanage. She chewed thoughtfully as the phone rang, waiting for someone on the other side to answer.

"Balamb Garden, this is Xu. How may I help you?"

Quistis swallowed. "This is Quistis."

"Hey!" Xu's tone brightened. "What's up? How's the mission going?"

"It's…getting complicated. I need to talk to the headmaster. Is he available?"

"For you, yeah. Hold on, I'll put you through to him."

Quistis waited as hold music came on the line. It wasn't long before Cid picked up. "Quistis? Is something wrong?"

"Sort of," she replied.

"Edea?"

"Oh. No. She's fine."

Cid blew out a sigh of relief.

"This is about the dead body. I need to discuss what we've found out with you."

"You've delivered it to the morgue in Deling City, right?" She heard him shuffle through some papers. "I was under the impression that the autopsy was complete and that the fisherman were back in business."

"Yes. That's true."

"So, case closed," Cid said.

"Not quite. We've found out some interesting things about the way this man died, sir. We believe he was killed on an island in the southern sea by a hitherto unknown kind of a monster, a type of hybrid dragon immune to most magical attacks and poisonous."

There was a short pause before Cid said, "Interesting."

"And we've also uncovered evidence that suggests the deceased was involved with some sort of extremist group," Quistis continued, looking down at her half eaten toast and wishing that she had more solid information to pass on. "The toxins from the monster's poison were present during the autopsy. Kelly's got a sample of it being analyzed here in Deling. She says it appears to be a type of neurotoxin. So whatever this thing is, we think it packs a pretty good punch."

She heard Cid release a long breath. "And you would like clearance to go find this animal?" he asked.

"I think we have to, sir. Its high resistance to magic makes it deadly, even to SeeDs. We should know what we're dealing with before this thing shows up in Centra or Esthar."

"I agree," he announced. "I'll discuss it with the board and get back to you. For right now, stay in Deling City. Do what you can from there."

"Yes, sir."

"I've got to be honest with you though, Quistis. We're not scientists. And there isn't any money in this. I don't think they're going to let you go."

"Yes, sir," she repeated.

"I'll talk to you soon," he said and hung up.

Discouraged, Quistis finished her breakfast without any of the enjoyment she'd had earlier. The issue of the monster had been weighing on her mind. It was something unique, something that she'd never seen before despite having traveled all over the planet and even into the future. Whatever it was, she knew that it was either a catastrophe waiting to happen or a bizarre windfall for the SeeD training program. Nothing in the world could offer the same challenge this monster did. And despite herself, she was eager to pit her skills against it, even more eager to watch Seifer pit his.

The door cracked open, and his blond head peaked in. "Hey. Come downstairs and eat before all the good stuff is gone."

"I already ate," she replied.

"What? Toast?" He swung the door open the entire way and walked in. "You can't survive on that. Come on. Quit being so stuffy and get your ass down there."

She sighed and made a big show of getting up off the bed, hoping to make it as obvious as possible to Seifer that she was doing what he asked against her will. Holding onto her elbow, he guided her out of the room and down the steps to the hotel bar which at the moment was set up as buffet. The metal containers of steaming scrambled eggs, pancakes, and biscuits looked strange against the backdrop of red velvet curtains and the grand piano. Kelly was sitting at the back of a round booth finishing off a towering glass of milk.

"Well?" she asked when they approached.

Seifer threw two gil down on the table. "You were right."

"Right about what?" Quistis asked as she sat down.

"Seifer bet me that you were taking so long because you were on the phone with Carson," Kelly said.

Quistis shot an irritated glance at Seifer, who was filling up a plate at the buffet. "You were betting on me?" she said when he walked back and set the plate down in front of her.

"Seemed like a sure thing," he replied and slid into the booth next to her. "I mean, what were you doing up there all alone? Just spending quality time with your toast or something?"

"No. You were partly right, I guess. I was on the phone. But not with Carson," she said, deciding to let go of her irritation because he'd gotten her breakfast and was smiling so charmingly. "I was talking to Cid."

"What did he say?" Kelly asked, becoming serious.

"He said he'd talk to the board, but it doesn't look good," she replied.

"Damn." Seifer slammed his hand against the table top. "Why'd they even send us in the first place if they didn't want us to do a fucking thing about what happened? They expected us just to come out here, haul the body to Deling City, and that's that?"

Quistis shrugged. "Pretty much. Those were the parameters of the mission." She cut into a pancake on her plate, noticing that Seifer had drizzled warm blueberry syrup over it. She'd have to tell him someday that she really preferred maple, she thought. But it still tasted good.

"There's always the chance we wouldn't be able to find the island anyway," Kelly pointed out. "There's hundreds of them out there. Most of them aren't even charted. It's a needle in a haystack."

"Maybe, but I know the answer to this guy's death is out there," Seifer said. "And it's not just that he was some random guy, exploring some random island who got himself killed. There's more to it than that. I'm positive."

Quistis felt the same way. But it wasn't up to her. In the end, it was all up to a committee back at Garden. But she knew Cid would do everything that he could to convince them.

0 0 0

Cid sat at the head of a long conference table, the rest of the Garden faculty gathering around and taking their seats. As the men sat down together, they removed the hats that covered their faces. The uniforms they wore made them indistinguishable from one another and made them seem like a single organism, a hive mind. The other side of the table was filled with a select group of instructors, one from every department.

As they settled in, Cid took a drink of water and cleared his throat.

"You've all been briefed on the situation," he began. "So let's get right to it and open the floor to questions and opinions."

The faculty member in charge of the training center spoke up first. "I think it would be wise to find out as much as we can about this monster that SeeD may someday have to fight, or even bring one back to train against."

"I agree," someone seconded.

"I think we should leave it well enough alone," one of the instructors, an older man, responded. "We haven't encountered this thing up until now, and as far as we know, we're the only ones who even know it exists. What if it is some unbeatable monster? We don't want to go dragging it off its secluded island and cue in the Galbadians to the fact that it even exists. And in any case, the DNA results we got back might not even correspond to actual traits in the monster. They could be unexpressed genes."

Everyone thought that over for a moment.

"Just to be on the safe side, we should assume the intel we've received is true," the training center faculty member replied. "If we'd ignored the reports of malboros years ago, we wouldn't have done so much more research into status defenses. And where would we be now? You have to admit, there are real monsters out there a lot more bizarre than this one. And with the lunar cry during the war, we really don't know what came down."

"He's got a point," someone else said. "We've got to check this thing out for our own safety."

The same old instructor scoffed. "It's dangerous and foolish. The fact of the matter is, we don't have any idea what's out there or even where it is. You can't just send people off on a wild goose chase like that. Let's call the team back until we have more information at least."

"I think the real question here," Cid said, seeking to tone down the rising level of dissent, "is whether the benefits of such a mission would outweigh the dangers. And I'll remind you, we've sent SeeDs on much more dangerous missions than this before without batting an eye."

In fact, Garden rarely ever took danger into account when approving a mission, and he was surprised that it was coming up now. He knew the real reason the committee was balking, and the reason no one wanted to voice out loud, was money. They got paid a lot for all those dangerous missions they sent SeeDs on. But this one would require them to go into the red zone. They'd be pouring money in and might not get anything back in return. Greed had taken over Garden. Greed and business. The school wasn't the bulwark against evil he'd established it as anymore.

"Let's think for a minute what the losses could be if the Galbadians got a hold of this animal and set it loose in Balamb," an instructor said, leaning forward in his chair. "It could cripple SeeD. Only our best, people like Quistis and Seifer, could defeat it. Why don't we give them the chance to do it before it becomes a problem and costs us even more?"

Murmurs of agreement bounced from each side of the table.

"Shall we put it to a vote?" Cid asked.

Everyone nodded.

"All those in favor of sending a team to find the monster, raise your hand."

He watched as hands went up around the table, just more than half, and he felt relieved that he'd be able to deliver to Quistis the verdict that she so obviously wanted. Still, as someone who'd know both Seifer and Quistis since they were children, he felt a familiar pang of guilt sending them off into the unknown.

"All right. It's decided," he said.

0 0 0

Seifer was lying on the hotel room bed, flipping through the television channels. Galbadia had strange taste, and it was reflected in the odd variety of shows playing in the middle of the day. He stopped for a few minutes on a game show -- something that involved being dressed in a Halloween costume and boxing. Cid had already called to tell them what the board had decided, and Quistis was out getting the Ragnarok ready to return to Garden. Kelly, meanwhile, was sitting silently on the next bed, her shoulders sagging.

"You'll tell me how things turn out, right?" she said.

"Sure."

Because she had no field combat training, Kelly had been recalled to Garden, and they were going to be assigned a new team member to accompany them to the island. It didn't really make any difference to Seifer who went with them, but he understood how bad Kelly must have felt at being left behind.

"Hey." She turned to face him. "You be careful out there, okay. This thing is really dangerous, and I know you're Seifer Almasy and everything, but..."

Seifer sat up, planting his feet on the floor. "I'll be fine."

"I hope so." She smiled, her teeth tucking into her bottom lip in a coy, school-girl way. Seifer knew that smile and knew what it meant. She was a nice girl, a little too nice for someone like him, and he couldn't imagine returning her affection.

She shook her head and looked down at the floor.

"Sorry, that wasn't fair of me. I know you don't--"

"Ready to go?" Quistis breezed into the room, interrupting what Kelly had been about to say. "The Ragnarok's all set to go, and the train with our new man on it is arriving in ten minutes."

Collecting herself, Kelly said, "Sure. I'm ready."

Turning off the TV and trailing behind the two women out of the hotel, Seifer was glad that Quistis had interrupted. He liked the idea of letting Kelly fly off into the sunset without having to come clean and tell her that he didn't feel anything for her. They caught a bus to the train station and sat squished together in one bench seat, the only one available in the vehicle that was otherwise filled to the brim with old people.

"I'm really sorry that you can't come with us," Quistis said as they rattled toward the train station. "We could probably use your expertise down there."

"It's okay. I'd just be in the way," Kelly insisted and laughed. "Call me once the monster is dead -- _then_ I can help."

The train was steaming to a stop a few minutes ahead of schedule as they got off the bus. Seifer didn't know who they were looking for and hadn't thought much about who Garden might send to help them track down the island and the monster, but he was more than just a little surprised when Squall Leonhart stepped off the train.

"Puberty Boy," he said with a grin and clapped the other man on the back. "You're coming with us? Hyne. I haven't been on a mission with you since Dollet."

"I'm just the escort," Squall replied and gestured to the man who'd gotten off behind him. But Seifer's attention wasn't grabbed by the SeeD, who he recognized from a few classes they'd taken together once upon a time. Instead, he looked past him to the flushed, nauseating face of Carson Brecht. He was in uniform, as usual, but it was wrinkled and pulled up high around his ankles and wrists from the long train ride. Pushing past Squall and Seifer, he grabbed Quistis, pulled her close, and planted a noisy kiss on her lips.

Seifer gagged.

"Carson!" Quistis gasped once he let her go. "What are you doing here?" She looked embarrassed.

"I had some free time, so I came along to say hey." The way he was grinning made Seifer's blood boil, but he couldn't bring himself to look away. It was like a car accident. Horrifying. Terrible. But riveting.

"It's nice to see you," Quistis said sweetly, extracting herself from his grasp. "Sorry I haven't called. We've been busy."

"That's okay. I understand."

Seifer leaned in close to Squall and whispered between clenched teeth, "Please tell me he's going back to Garden with you." Having overheard him, Kelly's head whipped around and she pinned him with her smart, suspicious gaze.

"That's the plan," Squall replied.

Thank, Hyne, Seifer thought. The only plus to having Brecht accompany them was the possibility the monster might manage to kill him. Past that, Seifer thought a few of hours of watching the man canoodle with Quistis might drive him to do the job himself. The Ragnarok was just outside the city, close to the train station, so they didn't have to walk long to get there. It was resting in a thick patch of dark meadow grass, its dragon's talons dug deep into the earth.

"We contacted Galbadia Garden about loaning us a ship," Squall said to Quistis as she punched in the combination to open the Ragnarok's hangar door.

"Yeah. It arrived this morning. Thank you."

"Cid was explicit," Squall continued. "The ship should be loaded with all our latest maps and it's equipped with everything you need for emergency triage. But past that, you're not going to be getting any other resources from Garden. No air support. No backup. So don't get yourself in any trouble down there."

"Understood."

"You're all junctioned properly?" Brecht asked, slipping into instructor mode.

"We can handle anything that might come up," Quistis assured him.

One more hug, another kiss, and Carson Brecht was finally climbing into the belly of the Ragnarok. For a moment, Kelly lagged behind, stopping to wave and smile sadly before kindly telling the new guy that he was going to love being part of Quistis and Seifer's team.

"Be careful," Squall admonished one more time before following her up into the ship.

Like they really needed to hear that one more time. It was almost like everyone else knew something they didn't. Or maybe the unease, the sense that something big was about to happen, was spreading like a contagion. At least they were finally about to see some action. They were hot on the trail. And Seifer couldn't wait to leave.


	8. The Crescent

Chapter 7: The Crescent

Kelly sat flipping through the DNA report from Esthar International one last time. Her final orders from Quistis were to take it back to Garden and deliver it to Dr. Kadowaki who had agreed to work with one of the doctors in Deling City on finding an anti-venom for the monster's poison. It was a kind gesture from Quistis, one last thing for Kelly to do to offset the pain of not being able to see the mission through to the end. That was often the nature of her work, however. She dealt with the dead, rarely the living. And she only ever saw the beginning or the tail end of an investigation.

Next to her, Carson Brecht shifted in his seat.

"Something wrong?" she asked.

"Hmm? No. Just thinking."

"About what?"

"Quistis," he admitted.

Kelly frowned, remembering the look on Seifer's face when Brecht had stepped off the train in Deling City to sweep Quistis up in his arms. She hadn't quite understood his fearsome reputation until then; he'd looked ready to commit murder. And it was obvious that whatever friendship had blossomed between him and Quistis was quickly growing to be something more intense.

"She's flying off to Hyne knows where," Carson continued, "out into the middle of the ocean, tracking down some monster for no good reason. I lobbied my department head hard to get him to oppose this mission."

Surprised, Kelly asked, "Why?"

"To keep her safe."

"Quistis can take care of herself," she replied, wondering how well Carson really knew his girlfriend. He did realize that he was dating Quistis Trepe, didn't he? She was still the youngest person to ever make SeeD and the youngest instructor Balamb Garden had ever had. Not to mention, she was one of the six who had defeated the Sorceress Ultimecia.

"Taking care of her is my job," Carson said, shaking his head. "As far as I'm concerned, she doesn't need to look out for herself anymore now that I'm around."

Kelly couldn't help saying, "She doesn't seem like the kind of person who needs or wants someone to watch over her. And besides, she has Seifer with her."

Brecht's back stiffened when she mentioned Seifer, and she was amused at the way the other man's name could unravel him. His feathers were in a bunch when he turned toward her, his eyes blazing.

"What the hell is _that_ supposed to mean?"

"Seifer's the best SeeD in Garden next to Squall," she replied. "He can take care of her if they get in trouble. He'll protect her. And, I suppose if she asks him nice, he'd even hold her in the night when things get cold, dark, and scary." She was being malicious now and wasn't even sure he'd heard the last of what she'd said over his own rage.

"Quistis hates Seifer," he barked.

"Not from what I've seen," she said. In fact, they seemed perfectly at ease in each other's company, like any two people who'd known each other their entire lives. And she didn't see why more time alone wouldn't bolster that. "I mean, they stayed in Esthar together for several days without any trouble," she pointed out.

"They _what_?"

Though she knew she'd crossed a line, Kelly plowed on anyway. "They flew our DNA sample to Esthar and stayed there waiting for the results. All I'm saying is that they got along just fine. I don't think she hates him or vice versa."

"Well…Quistis and I are in love," Brecht announced tenuously. "I wish I was going down there with her. I don't trust Seifer. That loser couldn't find his ass if it was on fire. Do you know how many times it took him just to pass the field exam?"

"Seifer knows damn well where his ass is," Kelly replied. "And he's a good SeeD. What's your problem with him?"

"He's a screw-up! He gets everyone around him in trouble! And I don't want anything to happen to my girlfriend because of him!"

On behalf of Seifer's honor as a mercenary, Kelly was a heartbeat away from standing up and cracking Brecht with a hard left hook when Squall finally took notice of what was going on between them. "Hey," he grunted with authority. "Knock it off."

Settling back into her seat, Kelly crossed her arms and looked out the window. Someone like Quistis deserved someone who recognized what she was at her very core — a smart, capable soldier — and wouldn't try to mask that under some fairy tale princess idea of femininity. If she was smart, she'd see what a dead end this relationship with Brecht was and wake up to the possibility standing right in front of her.

0 0 0

A long map of blue water was spread out on the glossy table in the Deling City Hotel bar between Quistis and her new SeeD teammate, Adrian. Seifer leaned over top of it, a thrilled gleam in his eyes.

"All right." He cracked his knuckles and jabbed one finger down against the map. "This is approximately where the body was picked up by the sailors. Assuming that it had been in the water for four to five days like Kelly thought, and assuming that the body traveled in a constant north westerly direction—"

"Why are we assuming that?" Quistis asked and took a sip of her drink.

"Because there's a big current sweeping through this whole area," Seifer replied, indicating the direction the water flowed on the map. "Goes right from this area down here toward the Centra shore. That's why it's always so nice around the orphanage. Lots of rain and a good cool sea breeze off this current."

"Makes sense to me," Adrian said.

Quistis thought she might have taught Adrian during her one year as an instructor, but she wasn't sure. She knew enough about him from his reputation around Garden to know that he was a good guy though, a solid SeeD who could be relied on. He was a solider, a gladiator, tall and dark and handsome. Together, she knew Seifer and Adrian would make a formidable team full of raw power and strength. It was a good combination for going up against this monster strong against magic. They could fight while Quistis backed them up with casting.

"So, I think we're looking at these group of islands in here," Seifer continued.

"Those are all pretty small," Quistis pointed out. "Wouldn't a big animal like this need a considerable range? More-so than a few square miles, anyway? And we need to remember, the island we're looking for might not even be on a map."

"Doesn't do us much good to consider about that," Seifer replied. "If it's not on one of these maps, then we're not finding it."

Adrian reached around his tall, frosty mug of beer and pointed to a moderate sized island just west of the chain Seifer had indicated. "How about that one? Large enough to support big animals, small enough to be inconspicuous. About five day's journey from shore as the body floats, wouldn't you say?"

It was an odd island, shaped like a crescent.

Quistis shrugged. "Looks good to me. Compared to the rest of them, that one certainly looks like our best shot."

"Okay. I agree." Seifer marked down the latitude and longitude of the island before folding the map back up. "So, when do we leave?"

"We've got to pick up some supplies first," Quistis replied. "We're going to be at sea for a while. And who knows how long we'll be hopping from island to island. Plus, we need to take everything we'll need with us for building a barge."

 "A barge?" Adrian asked.

"For bringing back a specimen," she explained. "If we manage to kill one, we're supposed to radio Garden, then ferry the carcass back to Centra, and Cid will set up a temporary base there to examine it."

"I see." Adrian finished off his beer and leaned back in his seat. "Well, I'm ready. Let's get on it."

"Me too," Seifer agreed, finishing his drink as well. "I say we get out of here first thing in the morning."

They had just finished dinner, and the bar in the lower level of the Deling City Hotel was just beginning to come to life around them. The evening's entertainment walked by their table clutching a stack of sheet music in one hand. Her full lips curved sweetly as she passed Adrian.

"Hey," he said.

"Hey to you, too," she replied.

Next to Irvine, Adrian was the biggest player in Garden. Where Irvine had fame he could rely on to snag any woman's attention, Adrian had smooth charm. He always seemed sincere in his compliments and, from what Quistis had heard about him, had never gone more than a few days between conquests. For a second, she caught Seifer regarding him with a mix of admiration and wariness, one alpha male sizing up another.

_Men_, she thought with a shake of her head.

They both ordered another drink from the bar. Quistis still had half of hers left but could already feel it hitting her — the relaxation, the fuzziness, the warm flush to her cheeks. As a leader, she didn't want to make a fool out of herself by getting smashed before the music even started. It did a moment later, and Adrian craned his head around to look at the dance floor, either looking for a partner or taking a second glance at the singer, Quistis wasn't sure which. It didn't take long before a girl approached him though, and Quistis watched as he took her hand and led her out amongst the other people.

"Like a moth to a flame," Quistis said and took another sip of her drink.

Sitting beside Seifer, she couldn't help but mark the differences between her two partners. Adrian was utterly non-threatening, safe and suave. But Seifer created a visible wake when he walked through a crowd as people scrambled out of his path. His handsome face was almost always twisted into a scowl, driving people away, relishing fear over friendship. Except right now, she realized as she looked up at him. He was a little bit drunk, just enough to soften his expression into something easy and undeniably attractive.

For a while, they sat together drinking, listening to the music, and watching Adrian work his magic on the Galbadian girl.

 Then, suddenly, as he sat down his empty glass on the table, Seifer asked, "Wanna dance?"

"What?" Quistis was caught off guard. "You mean…you and me?"

"Yeah. What else would I mean? Come on." He stood up and offered her his hand.

Hesitantly, Quistis took it and let him lead her out onto the dance floor. Maybe she was a little drunk, too, she thought as her heart began to race. The pianist spotted them and smiled, then started a new song, her fingers moving elegantly across the keys as she leaned into the microphone. It was a slow song and across the room, Quistis saw Adrian wrap his arms around his dance partner and kiss her. Quistis jumped when Seifer pulled her close, one of his hands resting on the small of her back.

She'd danced with him before, a long time ago when they'd both been students. But that had been formal dancing full of routine movements and steps. Now he just held her close and swayed slowly to the sluggish, heady beat of the music. They danced like that for half the song before Quistis began to relax. Into the second, she closed her eyes and let herself lean into him. It was hard to think beyond the haze of alcohol in her veins and the singer's sultry voice, but Quistis knew she was enjoying this. Seifer was a good dancer, well trained but there was also something more…something in the way he held her, or the way his shoulder felt under her cheek as she laid her head against him.

Neither of them said anything, but she felt Seifer look down at her. His chin brushed the top of her head. Then his head dropped lower until she felt his breath on her cheek. Quistis didn't mean to grip him a little tighter or press herself a little closer, but she did. The song changed and Seifer led them without pause into the new beat.

_I could do this all night_, Quistis thought as she let out a relaxed sigh.

They did, until Adrian came by with his date and tapped Seifer on the shoulder, breaking them apart. "I'm heading out," he announced with a wink. "Don't wait up. I'll meet you in the morning."

They went up to their room after that, showered, and went to bed. Quistis was glad that Seifer didn't seem to want to talk, and even more glad when she woke up the next morning feeling content and refreshed, without any hint of a hangover from the far too loose evening she'd had in the hotel bar. Seifer appeared to be feeling just as good and was ready to go before she was. In the lobby, Adrian was waiting for them, a content smile on his face as he finished eating a doughnut he'd gotten from the hotel's breakfast buffet.

"Mind if I head on over to the junk shop first?" Adrian asked as they got out onto the sidewalk. "I'd like to check on a weapon upgrade before we go."

"Sure. We'll be right up the street," Quistis replied.

"Great. Thanks." He flashed her a white grin filled with incredibly perfect teeth and then jogged through traffic to the other side of the street as she and Seifer continued on up the road to the general store.

When Seifer opened the door to the Galbadian shop, a bell tinkled above them, and a little woman peeked out from behind a shelf.

"Can I help you?" she asked, shuffling as quickly as she could to the front of the store on a knee that was evidently stiff and painful. "Here to buy something? Or sell perhaps?"

"We're just going to look around for a bit. Thanks," Quistis answered, grabbing hold of Seifer's arm to steer him away lest he request any sort of assistance from the woman. Quistis had made that mistake in this shop once before only to have the woman follow her through the entire store, spouting long, involved sales pitches for nearly every item.

"Okay. But if you need any help, you let me know," she said, looking a little forlorn.

Seifer grabbed a basket and Quistis followed him to the back of the shop where the healing items were stocked. Rummaging through the shelves, Quistis grabbed everything she thought they could conceivably need. She was on her knees, picking the best phoenix pinions out of a plastic bin on the floor, when Seifer set his now overflowing basket down beside her and asked, "How come you haven't been calling your boyfriend?"

Stunned, Quistis stopped what she was doing and turned to look up at him. "What?"

"When Brecht got off the train, he said that he hadn't heard from you. I know he's been writing you love letters every day, so why haven't you been talking back?"

"I...uh..." She was completely stymied. "I've been busy."

"If I found the time to read his stupid love notes to you, I'd think you'd have been able to find time to respond to them."

Quistis stood up. "Why exactly do you care?"

"I'm just curious."

"Curious. Right." She narrowed her eyes. "If you really have to know, I haven't been writing to or calling Carson because I'm on a mission right now. And I don't like to let personal matters interfere with my work." Not anymore, at least. She'd learned her lesson to keep those things separate after losing her job as an instructor. And she'd never had another adolescent obsession like she'd had back then with Squall. When Carson was out of sight, he was usually out of mind as well. She hadn't been thinking about him at all.

"What's he teach anyway?" Seifer asked as they got back to shopping. "I've got him pegged for something like...Survey of Historical Battles or something."

"He teaches junctioning."

Seifer grunted softly. "Another one of my least favorite classes. All the tables and the magic stats to memorize. Lame."

"What one was your favorite?" she asked.

He smiled. "Yours, of course."

"That wasn't really the impression I got from your behavior," Quistis replied as they headed up toward the register.

"Imagine what I was like for everyone else."

There wasn't any need to. Quistis had heard stories from Xu, and Carson, and a dozen other members of the faculty about Seifer's historic reign as Balamb Garden's resident trouble maker. Maybe she had gotten off easy compared to the other instructors he'd had, though it certainly didn't feel like it at the time. For all the trouble he'd caused back then, she thought he hadn't turned out all that bad. She watched as he gathered up their bags in his arms and pushed the door open for her with his shoulder.

Adrian was waiting outside. He took one of the bags from Seifer and fell into step with them as Quistis continued up the street. All three were completely loaded down with supplies before she was done. They rented a car to transport it all down to the beach and load it into the vessel Squall had dropped off for them - a newer model Garden ship, sleek and sexy and fast. It glinted in the afternoon sunlight as it bobbed in the waves rolling in toward shore.

"Squall was telling me about this ship on the way down," Adrian said as he climbed inside. "It's pretty sweet. Built in navigation, just like the Ragnarok, with fully equipped auto pilot. Built in FH too. All the same technology. And check this out." He walked to the back and pulled open a dark curtain to reveal several bunk beds. "Nice. Huh? All the comforts of home. Plus, this puppy is armed to the teeth. Machine gun mounted up top fires a third faster and with twice the range of the old models."

"It's lovely," Quistis agreed.

"I made a joke about a little bunk bed hanky-panky," Adrian admitted. "It made Instructor Brecht pretty mad. He's really protective of you. Sorry if that cased any trouble."

 "He didn't say anything about it," Quistis replied. They hadn't had much time to talk, and what little time they did have he'd spent filling her in on what he'd been doing while she'd been gone.

"That's because he was too busy marking you as his territory," Seifer said. "The asshole did everything but pee on your leg."

They were putting their supplies away, stocking the ship's locking cupboards with canned food and healing items. Quistis slammed one cupboard closed and moved to the next one. "How come all anyone ever wants to talk to me about is Carson?" she asked, irritated both that the subject wouldn't go away and that anyone might think of her as their own personal property.

"Because you're Quistis Trepe," Adrian said. "It's all the Trepies have been talking about since you got together with him. You should see the message boards. Almost every thread is about you and Carson. It's all anyone is talking about. Everyone wants to know the juicy details."

Seifer made a gagging sound. "Juicy and Brecht do not go together."

They both laughed and Quistis walked between them, fuming. The ribbing shouldn't have bothered her, but they were rubbing up against her own unease over the way she'd felt when Carson had ambushed her at the train station. She hadn't been prepared to see him, and she'd been even less prepared for him to kiss her in front of everyone. She wasn't confident enough yet in their relationship to have it displayed in public like that. And it made her mad that he didn't seem to realize how uncomfortable he'd made her.

"You know that he has like…twenty pictures of you in his wallet, right?" Adrian asked.

"No. I didn't know that."

"And did you also know that you are 'frail and sweet and gentle?' Like a flower, he said."

Seifer chuckled. "Hyne. What a sap."

"Guys!" Quistis barked. "Knock it off. All right?"

Looking genuinely apologetic, Adrian said, "We're just teasing. Didn't mean to upset you."

"Well, let's try to get our minds back on track. We're on a mission, and we need to get out of Galbadia soon if we're going to make it to this island sometime in the next week."

Properly cowed, both men looked away from her and got back to work. While they finished putting away the supplies, she sat down in the captain's seat and booted up the onboard navigation. Adrian was right; it was the exact same system they had on the Ragnarok. Easily, Quistis maneuvered through the menus and imputed the coordinates of the island. A pinwheel appeared while the computer plotted a course.

When it was done, a map appeared showing their current position and a solid red line leading south, around Centra, and off into the empty ocean where it eventually stopped at a pinpoint flagged with the island's coordinates. It was a long trip. They'd be at sea for several days just getting there, even in this absurdly fast ship. She plotted in two short stops in Centra to get out and stretch their legs, maybe even refill their water supply, then saved the course.

"We're all set," Seifer said and sat down.

"Anything else you can think of that we need?" Quistis asked. "This is our last brush with civilization here."

Both men shook their heads, so she swiveled around in her chair back to the navigation display. "Then we're off." The engine roared to life and the Galbadian shore line suddenly lurched away.

Off into the unknown.


	9. The Island

Chapter 8: The Island

Adrian and Seifer were deeply involved in a game of Triple Triad, their poor sets of cards and skills drawing the game out between them. It was difficult for Quistis to watch. Every time she thought one of them was going to win, he would make the wrong move completely, resulting in yet another draw. And both of them seemed genuinely puzzled as to how to beat the other. It was painful.

"Are you guys trying to suck at this, or what?" she finally asked as another game resulted in a tie.

"Why the hell would we do that?" Seifer asked.

"Yeah. Don't insult us," Adrian agreed. "Not everyone can be the queen of the Balamb Garden Card Club."

"I'm just stating a fact. Sorry to be the one to break it to you, but I know several five year olds who could wipe the floor with both of you."

Seifer hissed. "That's harsh, Quistis." But they continued to play, undaunted by her criticism.

They'd been at sea for several days now and Quistis had already had her fill of the ocean. They'd passed as close to Centra as they were going to already, so there was nothing out the windows but choppy blue waves to the horizon. With no landmarks, it felt like they weren't moving at all, like they were stuck on some maddening treadmill. Her legs ached with the need to get up and move. And boredom was beginning to make her testy.

She watched as Seifer and Adrian hunched over their cards, both blind to the obvious opening that could win the either of them the game. With a sigh, she leaned over and took a card out of Seifer's hand, set it down in the middle of the table, and flipped over three of Adrian's cards with her other hand. "There," she said and sat back.

Seifer grinned. "I win!"

"No you don't! That's not fair!" Adrian complained. "She won that game for you. It doesn't count."

"Sorry," Quistis replied, shaking her head. "I couldn't sit and watch you ignore that move anymore."

Proudly, Seifer claimed a card from Adrian's defeated hand. "Ah yeah…that felt good," he said, throwing his arm over Quistis's shoulders as he leaned back again.

"Why do I feel like you two are conspiring against me?" Adrian asked.

"Because we are," Seifer replied.

Laughing, Adrian collected his cards and stretched so that his back popped. "Great. You two can just keep on plotting then. I'm heading to bed for a while." He'd been up for a while and was yawning as he disappeared behind the curtain.

"You hungry?" Seifer asked.

They shared a can of apricots, fought over the last granola bar before deciding to split that as well, then sat back and stared at each other.

"You look like hell," he said.

"You, too," she replied.

They were all beginning to look a little worse for wear. The short stop they'd made in Centra had given them time to clean up, but the effects of that were fading now. Seifer wasn't wearing his trench coat or shoes and had his vest half unzipped. His hair was sticking up at wild angles, following the familiar furrows his fingers traveled as he leaned back in his seat and tangled his hands behind his head.

"Let's go up top," Quistis suggested. "Get some air."

Seifer stood up and popped the hatch in the ceiling above them, then pulled down the ladder. It clanked against the floor and a flood of fresh sea air rushed in. Climbing up and out, into the wind and the sun and really feeling their speed as they zipped across the seas had become Quistis's favorite thing to do. She perched herself on the lip of the hatch and held on tight against the roar of air. Seifer followed up not far behind and sat beside her, one of his hands gripping the machine gun in front of them for support. Their feet dangled free into the cabin below, brushing against each other.

"Look at that!" Quistis shouted and pointed to a haze on the horizon, a shift in air temperature that was obscuring land nearby.

"We've been passing by them all day!" Seifer shouted back. "We're in the island chain now!"

"Almost there, then!" she shouted back and cautiously stood up, seeing if she could get a better view. The haze slowly resolved itself and began to lift, revealing a rocky shore topped with trees. Did it even have a name, Quistis wondered? No one had explored the southern sea since Esthar's empire had collapsed under Adel. Half of the planet was ocean. Who knew how many islands like this were out there? Who knew what sort of unknown life they might harbor?

The engine shifting gears made her lose her balance, and she fell back against Seifer who grabbed her arms and held her steady.

"Are we slowing down?"

"This must be it!" he shouted back.

_It_? Quistis leaned forward as Seifer crawled back down the ladder behind her into the vessel and watched as the island in front of them grew larger and larger until it was taking up the whole horizon. They slowed down until the wind was no longer howling past hear ears.

"Adrian!" Seifer bellowed below. "Get up! We're here!"

Embarrassed that she'd lost track of their progress so completely, Quistis crawled down the ladder after Seifer and sat down at the helm to turn off the auto-pilot. Once she switched to manual, a glowing radar screen came to life which outlined both the island's coast and a small underwater reef running on concave side of the crescent.

"See a beach?" Quistis asked and throttled down so they could avoid the reef.

"Nope. Nothing but rocky cliffs all along this side," Seifer replied from the co-pilot's chair. "Other side doesn't look great either."

"We'll have to find a place to anchor then. How about an inlet? Something protected."

"On the other side this bluff here, there's something that might work. Water's pretty shallow, closed in by the reef," he replied and pointed out the location on her screen. "We're headed right for it."

"Looks good to me," Quistis said. Behind her, Adrian was up and getting their supplies together. The ship was a bit of a mess after so many days worth of travel, and he was throwing pillows, shoes, and old food wrappers out of the way. There was urgency in his movements, the same excitement that had Quistis's heart pounding in her ears as she guided them around the reef and into Seifer's inlet. Through the open hatch above, she could hear the familiar cries of seagulls and the waves breaking against the shore.

"I can't find your whip," Adrian said.

"At the foot of her bed," Seifer replied.

A few seconds later, the other man shouted, "Got it!" and resumed stuffing their packs.

Dropping anchor took only a few button presses. There was a bump as it released and abruptly hit the bottom of the shallow harbor, then burrowed itself further into the seabed. Once it was properly secured, Quistis shut down and locked the navigation system, then turned around to find Adrian and Seifer bright faced and ready to go.

"Check over your junctions," she told them. "Remember this thing is supposed to be strong against magic, so lean heavily toward attack and defense."

"We got it," Seifer said and handed her an overstuffed, blue backpack. It was heavy, but was better than taking a chance. This far from any source of backup, and with this being the first real mission she'd been in charge of for months, she didn't want to go in unprepared. She pulled her SeeD jacket on, then the pack on top of it.

"Okay then. Let's go."

They had to slip first into the sea, which was so utterly clear that Quistis could see a red starfish crawling along the sand underneath her as she treaded water. With no beach to land on, they were going to have to scale the cliffs that made up the shore. Adrian was the best climber, so he went first, searching for an easy path across the rocks and up the small but slippery precipice. It was a bigger challenge than it looked. Where Quistis wasn't struggling to find footholds, she was fighting against slime and crumbling bits of stone. Her wet clothes and the sea breeze helped to keep her cool, but even so, Quistis could feel the power of the sun beating down on her as she climbed.

When Adrian heaved himself over the top, he tossed down a line behind him, and Quistis was more than ready for the respite. Wrapping it around her arm, she used it to lever herself up. The rope bit into her skin, but she was thankful for it — muscles she'd never used before were already beginning to ache and her finger tips were red with scrapes. Squinting against the sun, she looked up at Seifer above her. He had his trench coat balled up on top of his pack and his arms glistened with sea spray.

At the top of the cliff, Adrian reached out with one hand to help her.

"How are we going to get back down that?" she asked.

"Rappel," he replied and smiled. "Don't worry. Down is a whole lot easier than up."

Though she was concerned that they wouldn't be able to get a carcass down off the cliffs in order to transport it to Centra, she didn't say anything. That was a bridge she would cross when they came to it — _if_ they came to it. This island certainly looked like it could house a monster. The interior of the crescent spread out before them now, thick with jungle. A few trees grew right up against the edge of the cliff, their roots curled around solid rock. They hung there desperately, gnarled and untamed and unwilling to die. The dark forest was no less imposing. Bugs formed thick clouds around one flowering tree, the swarm creating a disquieting hum.

"We should try to stay close together," Quistis suggested.

The jungle enveloped them as they stepped into it. If she hadn't known better, Quistis would have thought that the trees stretched forever, a primeval world filled with muddy rivers, waterfalls, and dinosaurs. It might as well have been for how long it was going to take them to cover ground this dense. The humidity was stifling and every leaf she brushed by seemed to be serrated. The long, thin cuts they made along her arms attracted small, bright green flies.

"Tell me we have a plan on how to go about finding this thing," Adrian said.

Seifer laughed. "Maybe it will find us."

"Either way works for me," Adrian replied.

"Just keep an eye out for any sign of a large animal," Quistis said. "Tracks. Scat. Remains of a kill. The DNA report showed this thing's related to a lot of dragons, so they'll probably have similar habits. So there might be tree marking like blue dragons do. Things like that."

As they marched on across the island, the air grew hotter and the bugs increasingly troublesome. Quistis thought she could feel them in her hair and all over her body, setting her skin to crawling. She scratched and slapped, but the feeling didn't go away. It tormented her until she broke, tossing off her backpack to squeal and turn her head upside down, thrashing her hands through her hair.

"What's wrong?" Seifer asked.

"Ugh! Bugs! I feel like they're all over me!"

He seized her flailing hands. "Stop. Calm down."

It was a struggle to swallow her unease, but Seifer quickly let her go and began searching through her hair with his fingertips. Adrian joined in, and they worked their way across her head before shaking out her jacket and proclaiming her bug free. By the time they were done, she was calm and completely embarrassed.

"Thanks," she muttered.

"Leave the jacket off," Adrian suggested. "I'll carry it for you." He folded it up carefully before tucking it into a little bit of extra space at the top of his backpack. Even in the dirty jungle, caked with filth, he was handsome and charming. The way he smiled at her, he might as well have been an actor on a sound stage, every smudge carefully painted on so that he'd still look damn good. Seifer, on the other hand, was getting rumpled. His hair had begun to take on a life of its own, overcoming the gel he used to keep it slicked back to frizz in the humidity.

As they continued walking, something small and naked scampered out in front of them and into the bushes — some kind of lizard. Then another one, slightly larger followed after it.

"Is it possible that the monster isn't as big as we think?" Seifer suggested. "I haven't seen anything for something big to eat…unless it eats bugs like some sort of whale collecting plankton."

"How could something small kill a man like that?" Adrian asked.

"The poison," Seifer replied. "Like a snakebite. Dissolves the flesh around the bite. It was long enough before we found this guy…maybe the poison made this bite look a lot bigger than it really was."

Adrian thought about this for a second before saying, "Nah. I think it's more likely it's just not on this island."

"Hyne, I hope not." Quistis sighed. "I'd hate to think we're going through all this for nothing."

"Yeah," Seifer agreed. "Don't jinx it."

The trees hadn't parted or thinned when they found themselves up against a sheer wall of rock, a ridge along the mountains that formed the spine of the island. Vines scaled the crag, but Adrian looked up it with his arms crossed and his brows knotted with frustration.

"No point climbing this," he said.

Quistis shrugged. "We can follow them all the way to the other end of the island."

Stopping to check her compass, Quistis let Adrian take the lead. A loud, inhuman shriek stopped her in mid-step as she moved to follow him, and she looked up just in time to notice something large and mottled-brown come out of the trees at them. It was hunched forward, running on just its back feet, with a large, muscular tail swinging out behind it. Far out in front, Adrian didn't have time to react before the beast was on top of him. With one swipe, it knocked him to the ground, then skidded to a stop and swung around, its tail hitting Quistis in the gut and throwing her back against a tree. She was disoriented for a moment, her head swimming.

Distantly, she was aware of both Adrian and Seifer yelling.

"Out of the way!" Seifer was saying. "Out of the way!"

The monster had turned to look at him, forgetting Adrian who scrambled, bleeding, to his feet and over to Quistis.

The sky dimmed, and out of the sudden clouds above them, manifested from the even darker depths of Seifer's mind, Bahamut roared free. They were protected from the horrible attack that fired down out of the dragon's ethereal maw. Flame and debris fanned out with the impact of the attack, but the monster bellowed and shook it off, seemingly unharmed.

"What the fuck…?"

The monster dipped its wide head, glaring at them with yellow eyes. It was enjoying this, Quistis thought. Then it flexed its claws and leapt at them. Seifer darted out of the way and Quistis nailed it right in the face with a blast of ultima, the strongest magic she had stocked. It slowed the creature down, made the skin on its nose blister, but did little else.

Ducking and rolling, Seifer managed to open a shallow gash in its thigh. Blood oozed out and painted the edge of Hyperion's blade. As it wheeled around, Quistis lashed out with her whip, catching it on the shoulder. The skin didn't break, but she saw its muscles jump in response to the sharp pain. As Seifer attacked again from the front, it jumped back, knocking Quistis to the ground again as if she were nothing, a tiny rag doll. She landed on top of a rotten log with a loud crunch, and she wasn't sure if it was the sound of the log disintegrating underneath her or the sound of her own ribs breaking. But her head hit hard and blackness quickly flooded in around the edges of her vision.

Burning pain in her chest came a heartbeat later and drove the darkness back. She fought to come back to her senses, all too aware of the ongoing struggle between Seifer and the monster.

"Quistis!" He seemed to be calling from far away.

Two hands heaved her painfully up off the ground and the entire world went out of focus around Adrian's face as he looked down at her. He wasn't looking well. In fact, he looked very ill as he heaved her up and out of harm's way. Panting, he deposited her on the ground again and then collapsed beside her. Something was wrong with him, she realized. Something a lot worse than broken ribs.

"Quistis!" Seifer yelled again. "I need you to distract it for a second!"

Distract it? How the hell was she supposed to do that? She could hardly move.

Foregoing the healing spell that popped into her brain, she accessed instead an offensive move she'd learned from a monster in Galbadia. Her muscles tightened and convulsed as the spell built in her. Hoping to God she wouldn't puncture one of her lungs, she let it grow and grow and grow before finally letting it loose — a burst of electricity that radiated out from her to the monster, seizing its central nervous system.

Seifer was fast, faster and more agile than she'd ever seen him before. He was on top of the beast, climbing up its back and wrapping his legs around its throat. With all of his strength, he shoved Hyperion down into the back of the monster's neck. It bit painfully into the beast's tough hide. As it reared and bellowed, trying to dislodge Seifer from its back, he held firm. A manic look crossed his face as he held on and continued to work his slippery blade through tense muscle.

He was jamming it now between vertebrae, and the monster's eyes rolled back in its head with the pain.

It thrashed and clawed. But Seifer was determined and wild. He gave a hard shove, veins bulging in his arms and neck, and with what seemed like superhuman strength, he worked Hyperion through bone to sever the creature's thready spinal cord. A death spasm, and it slumped to the ground, leaving Seifer to roll off, panting and exhausted, covered in blood.

He stumbled over to Quistis.

"Are you okay?"

"No." She shook her head. "And neither is Adrian."

"Fuck." He collapsed onto his knees and began drying his hands against his pants. "What's wrong?"

"I think Adrian's been poisoned," she replied. "We need to flush out his wounds and get some antidote in him fast or he's going to die."

"Give me your pack."

She shrugged out of it, and Seifer dumped out its contents onto the forest floor. Some of the bottles had broken during the fight, so everything was soaked in a solution of potion and elixir. But he found one antidote that was still unharmed and uncapped it. Adrian was out cold, his skin pale and clammy, his hair matted to his head. Seifer had to roll him over and sit him up to empty the bottle into his mouth. He came to a little, choked and coughed, but swallowed before passing out again. They couldn't tell if it helped. He still looked on the edge of death.

"What about you?" Seifer asked, looking across Adrian's prone body to Quistis. "Can you walk?"

She pressed gently at her ribs, not sure exactly where her injury was. She ached all over.

"I think so. I'd cure myself, but if anything's broken…" Using healing magic on a broken bone was dangerous since it could fuse the break back together again before it was properly set. She needed an x-ray first. Still, considering the circumstances, she thought she'd take the risk and downed a potion. It didn't erase the pain completely, but the relief was enough to allow her to catch her breath again.

"I guess we found the right island," Seifer said, his expression dull with exhaustion and despair.

They had. And they'd stumbled right into hell.


	10. Aftermath

Chapter 9: Aftermath

The waves surged up against the rocky base of the cliff, making the small vessel that was anchored in the protected inlet rock and bob. The ship was sleek and shiny, designed to be streamlined like a fish. It was fast and flashy and efficient — everything about it characteristic of the people who had built it. Sunlight glinted off the colorful Garden insignia.

The man looking down on the ship turned, raking his eyes over the forest.

Permeating the silence, his com-link beeped.

"Yes?" he snarled.

"Who is it?" came the garbled reply.

"SeeD."

A long pause, then, "Leave it for now."

"Leave it?" He balked at the idea. He couldn't just walk away.

"Yes. Leave it." The voice on the other end was firm, sharp with conviction and steely resolve. It was the voice of a leader who would accept no argument.

"What about the SeeDs?" he asked.

"Don't worry about them." The signal dropped for a second, as it often did, then came back with a burst of static. "Come back," his leader commanded.

He grumbled to himself and acknowledged the order. This was a mistake. With SeeD on the island, they couldn't take any chances. But it wasn't his place to make decisions, and he had no choice but to return to the compound.

Casting one last glance toward the Garden vessel, he stalked back into the forest from whence he came.

0 0 0

Seifer flopped onto his butt in the dirt and shrugged out of his pack. Every muscle in his body felt like jell-o. And now that the adrenaline coursing through his blood was beginning to ebb, he was able to look at the situation he was in with a rational mind and feel fear. The monster had gotten the jump on them, and Adrian was badly hurt.

In front of him, Quistis pushed herself up off the ground. The clip that always held her hair fast had come undone in the fight, so her hair was hanging in dirty, blond tangles about her face. Her skin was smudged, her breathing labored. She'd taken a few hard hits; he cringed remembering them. Now, half healed, she was crouching over Adrian and chewing her bottom lip with worry knitted across her forehead. The scent of magic was in the air. Laying her hands upon their injured companion, she closed her eyes and called up a healing spell that shivered across all of them with a cool, blue-green glow.

As it moved through him, easing his worry and exhaustion, Seifer stopped for a moment to examine the monster's sad corpse. It was the color of mulch, spotted with black markings that allowed it to blend in with the mottled forest floor. The claws on its front feet were different than those on the back, less dark and surrounded by thick, pale tissue that must have helped it deliver its poison into its prey.

"Adrian?" Quistis's soft voice interrupted the silence that had fallen. No birds were calling. Even the bugs had abated for the moment. "Adrian. Come on. Open your eyes. Look at me."

He let out a strangled groan.

"This is no good," she said, glancing over her shoulder at Seifer. "We can keep him stable by healing him. But the antidote we gave him is doing nothing to counteract this poison. We need to get him back to the ship where we have more supplies. Maybe if we leave right away, we can radio Garden and have them fly Dr. Kadowaki down to Centra to meet us."

"Would he live that long?" Seifer asked.

She shrugged. "We knew this might happen. We have enough supplies to keep his heart going, at least. But this is a neurotoxin. I don't know what it might do to his brain by then."

"So we abandon the mission, and haul him back to Garden so that he can live the rest of his life as a vegetable?" Seifer shook his head. "He wouldn't want that."

"That's not our call to make. Now help me." She looped her arms around his legs, hauling him half up off the ground by his knees.

"Put him down," Seifer said. "You're going to hurt yourself worse than you already are."

Stubbornly, she asked, "Can you carry him on your own?"

"Guess I don't really have much choice but to try," he replied. "Out of the way. I got this."

Reluctantly, she let go. It was hard for her to give up control. He understood that. Wide eyed, she watched him bend down and lift Adrian up, draping the limp man over his shoulders.

"What about the monster?" he asked. "We just going to leave it after all that trouble?"

"Absolutely. Hell with it," Quistis replied, surprising him. "We know it's here. We know this is the right island. Cid can send more people. Adrian's my only concern right now. You two come before the mission."

Despite everything, he smiled. On the job, Quistis didn't care about anything but missions. She'd been a real hard ass about that as an instructor. And to see her now, letting go of what Garden had told her to do, making her own decisions, was heartening. Maybe this Quistis wouldn't have been so hard on him for leaving his post in Dollet years ago, he thought. Maybe this Quistis finally liked him as much as she'd liked Squall.

"Oh my God. Seifer…look!" She grabbed at him, knotting one hand in his shirt as the other went for her whip. He spun around and found a dark little man standing beside the monster's carcass. He wasn't looking at them, even though they both drew their weapons. Instead he crouched down, his knees popping, and pressed his fingers into a soft spot under the monster's chin.

"Who the fuck are you?" Seifer demanded.

The man glanced up and arched one eyebrow.

"You kill this?" he finally asked. His voice was low and soft, oddly accented in a way Seifer couldn't identify.

"Yeah."

"Hmm." The man nodded, then stood up again and gestured toward Adrian. "He poisoned?"

What the hell was this, Seifer wondered? A native? Were there actually people out on these isolated islands?

"Yeah," Seifer answered. "Do you know how to counteract it?"

The man stepped over the monster's tail and approached them, completely ignoring the way Quistis's hand tightened on her whip. Walking up to Seifer, he reached out for Adrian and peeled back one of his eyelids, exposing his dilated eye. "Yep," he finally said, the word more of a grunt. "We can save him."

"We?" Quistis asked, then repeated Seifer's earlier question: "Who are you?"

"We should hurry," the man replied. "He doesn't have much time."

"How would you know that?" Quistis asked.

He was already walking away, expecting them to follow him, the thready muscles in the back of his legs twitching as he walked. Lean and small, he had the body of an alley cat; he looked like the sort of person who could survive on an island like this. With no other options, they followed him. Though Seifer wasn't sure whether to count his blessings or be suspicious. The man didn't seem surprised to see them. And he seemed a little too calm about the whole situation. Shouldn't he be shitting bricks to find them on his island?

Leaving the monster's body behind, they followed him through the trees. He was nimble over the fallen branches and through the undergrowth, and Seifer had trouble keeping pace with Adrian's added weight on his shoulders. Beside him, Quistis still seemed to be in pain and he was worried about her. As tough as she was, he was used to seeing her as unflappable. But now, worried that she might have broken bones, she was waiting to heal herself and suffering through the pain so that Kadowaki wouldn't have to re-break anything when they got back to Garden in order to set it correctly. He kept glancing over at her, checking on her and ready to heal her himself if things got bad, consequences be damned.

It was hard, too, to leave the monster's carcass behind. That was the whole reason they were on this island, and now they were abandoning it to save Adrian…assuming this man really could.

"Quistis?" he asked, his voice rough.

"Yeah?"

"What the hell are we doing?"

She shook her head. "If this is the only chance Adrian's got…we'll give it to him."

The little man stopped up ahead and waited for them to catch up, then set off at an angle to their previous heading. "This way…" he murmured.

Sweat was pouring off Seifer. His mouth felt dry and he was dizzy, becoming dehydrated. But the man turned around and said, "Not much further," urging him on.

Swallowing his discomfort, Seifer muscled on. They only walked a few more minutes before the trees parted, revealing a low profile building that had been obscured on their satellite photos by the jungle canopy. It looked military, like something the Estharans had left behind when they abandoned their holdings in Centra and the southern sea. A crescent moon logo was splashed above the doorway in white paint.

"What is this?" Quistis asked.

"Home," the man replied. "Come on. I'll take you inside."

No one was outside the building, and if Seifer didn't know better, he would have thought that it was abandoned. Was this where Sascha Maurden had been living for the past several years, he wondered? They walked up to the set of heavy double doors — blast doors, definitely military — and the man kicked twice against them. After a few seconds, one of them cracked open and a man's head poked out.

"What's this?" he asked in the same softly accented voice.

"Found them in the jungle," their guide responded, then gestured to Adrian. "He's poisoned."

The man who'd answered the door pulled his head back in and stepped out of the way to allow them inside. The interior of the building was dark and grungy. A string of yellow lights hung from the ceiling and illuminated a path of hallways that stretched like tentacles through the building. The door slammed shut behind them, and the man pushed a bolt forward again, locking it. Against the monster, Seifer wondered? Or something else?

They were led down a long hallway and into a room obviously reserved for medical use. The islanders didn't seem too far behind on their technology and had a lot that looked like it had been left behind. Another insignia was painted on the wall, a crescent that bared a passing resemblance to the one that had been on the side of the Lunatic Pandora.

"Set him down here," their guide said, motioning to a metal table.

Then he threw open several cupboards, retrieving bottles and a small crucible which he energetically began grinding something up in, adding bits and pieces to the mixture from jars around the room. He worked with speed and efficiency, obviously having mixed the antidote to the monster's poison numerous times before.

"Put this on his wound," he said and handed the crucible to Quistis. A greenish paste was inside. She pulled back Adrian's shirt, dipped her fingers in the mixture, and began spreading the salve liberally over his wounds. While she did that, the other man retrieved a small syringe, drew up some clear liquid into it, and injected it into Adrian's arm.

"Is that it?" Seifer asked.

"That's it." He put everything away, then held up one finger. "Wait here."

He waked out, and they were left alone. Adrian was still unconscious but he seemed more at ease. Color was coming back into his complexion, and the quivering that had started to take hold of him as they walked through the jungle had abated. Quistis leaned against the table and blew hair out of her face.

"Are you okay?" Seifer finally asked.

"Yeah. I'm good."

"What do you think about this?" He looked around at the medical supplies lining the shelves, at the building around them, the unexpected civilization.

"I have no idea."

There wasn't more time to talk before a new man walked in and introduced himself as a doctor. He checked on Adrian once before turning his attention to Quistis and her ribs. Cautiously, Seifer watched the doctor's hands play across her stomach, pressing and testing just under her breasts, around her back.

"We'll take an x-ray," he said. "But I think you're okay."

"Are you all native to this island?" Seifer asked as the doctor set up an x-ray machine in the corner of the room.

"Yes. We've always lived here," the doctor replied.

"Did you build this building?" Quistis asked.

"No. Estharan soldiers built this. We moved in once they left. It provides good protection from the monsters. Plus…" he smiled, "they left us such nice machines. I can check your ribs now. If you would like, sir…I can have someone escort you somewhere to get cleaned up? Maybe rest a little."

"I'll stay." The last thing he wanted was to get separated from Quistis and Adrian. He didn't trust these people yet, and his suspicion was still enough to overcome the draw of crawling into a soft bed somewhere and sleeping for a few days. The doctor shrugged and guided Quistis in front of a screen. They both stood back while the old x-ray machine beeped and whirred. Then it was done and he let Quistis sit down while they waited for the film to develop.

"How did you get here?" the doctor asked quietly. "We…don't get many visitors."

"I'm surprised you get any at all," Quistis replied, avoiding the question. "We had no idea there were people here."

"We would like to keep it that way," the doctor said. "Some of us here were still alive when Esthar ruled these islands. And we don't want another overlord to come and take control. We like our way of life. And we'd like to be left alone." His voice was harder now, chiding. It was the first hint that Seifer had gotten that they weren't welcome here, and it made his hair stand on end.

"Have you had any visitors lately?" Quistis asked. "Besides us, I mean?"

The doctor shook his head. "Not for several years. Wayward ships here and there. But we avoid contact with them. I imagine you never would have seen Abra either, except that your friend here got himself injured."

Abra — that must have been the man who brought them in.

"That monster is something else," Seifer said. "What is it? Is it native to this island, too."

"Yes. But we avoid them. On your way out, you should try to do that as well."

The x-rays were done, so he put them up on the wall and turned on the light behind them, illuminating a black and white image of Quistis's insides.

"There are several hairline cracks," he said, pointing with a pen. "Here and here and here. But nothing that is fully fractured. I can give you something to help with the swelling and the pain. But there's nothing to do but let the breaks heal on their own."

"How about Adrian?" Seifer asked.

"He should be okay. But we'll have to keep an eye on him…make sure we gave him enough anti-venom and that it's all out of the wound. It takes a long time to heal from an injury like this. He'll have to stay here for several days before he can be moved."

Great. They were stuck here then, at the mercy of their hosts. At least so far, whether the islanders wanted them here or not, they were being hospitable. They could have abandoned them in the jungle and let Adrian die.

"Now…can I have someone take you to a room?" the doctor asked. "If you don't want to be split up—"

"We don't," Seifer interrupted.

The doctor nodded. "That's fine. A little rest would do you both well."

They were guided again through the long hallways and led to a sparse, windowless room, barrack-like with nothing but a bed and a mirror nailed to one wall. Across the hallway, they were told, was a communal bathroom where they could shower and get cleaned up. It all sounded so good. Too good to be true, perhaps. But for the moment, as their guide left them to their own devices, Seifer felt safe enough to relax.


	11. Breathing Lessons

Chapter 10: Breathing Lessons

When Quistis got out of the shower, she put on a white t-shirt and a pair of loose, dark blue sweatpants that tied at the waist and said "Balamb" across the butt. She ran her fingers through her damp hair and padded over to her backpack. Out of one of the front pockets, she retrieved a bottle of aspirin and poured two into the palm of her hand. A few healing spells had done a lot to help the searing pain in her ribs. Now she was just sore and tired.

She rolled the pills back and forth with her thumb for a moment before tossing them to the back of her throat and swallowing them. They slid down dryly, leaving a sour taste in her mouth.

It didn't sound like Seifer was still in the shower across the room. But with the afternoon he'd had, she wouldn't have blamed him if he was still just standing under the hot spray, letting it pound down on his back and arms. For a long time, Quistis had thought that SeeDs like Seifer were old hat, not really any different than hired muscle. It was magic that set SeeD apart from the rest. And he didn't rely much on that, preferring to meet problems with his fist and blade. It was a world view that worked to her advantage. Her blue magic made her superior, not just to men like Seifer, but to everyone. Here, none of that mattered. Her magic meant nothing against the monster in the jungle. Here, Seifer was superior.

He'd saved all of their lives, and she'd never seen a more impressive, feral display. His strength had been inhuman. Adrenaline had turned his body, already ripe for battle, into that of an animal. He'd been magnificent.

Thinking of it made her shudder. And it made her smile.

Zipping up her backpack, she walked around the bathroom, taking in the cinderblock walls, the chipped paint, and the concrete floor. Neither the doctor nor Abra, the man who had guided them in from the jungle, had said much about themselves or this building. But it was obviously an old military compound. She recognized the construction, and she knew that the materials to make it weren't available on the island. This was definitely the remnant of something bigger, a lost tendril of Esthar's empire.

On the way to her room, their guide had taken them through hallways spotted with heavy doors. All of them were closed with no windows — not the sort of thing she'd expected for a building that had been taken over by a village. She'd thought they'd see doors propped open with families and children camped inside. She'd thought they'd at east see other people, but it had just been them, their guide, and the stark military silence.

She gathered up the rest of her things and padded across the hallway back to the room she and Seifer had been alloted.

When she opened the door, it was dark inside. The darkness was warm and cozy, much better than the harsh fluorescents in the bathroom and the dismal yellow of the hallway. She closed the door behind her and reached out with one hand to find the wall.

"Seifer?" she whispered into the dark.

When he didn't respond, she stepped forward, leaving the safety of the regular dips and crevices in the wall to walk toward where she thought the bed was. But she ran into something, tripped, and dropped her clothing and her backpack.

"Ow! Son of a—!"

"Quistis?" The bed creaked as Seifer got up, then turned on the light. "What the hell? What's wrong?"

Her toe was stinging where she'd stubbed it against something hard in his backpack, and her own belongings were scattered all across the floor. "Nothing's wrong," she replied, still hissing and grabbing her big toe.

"Then what's all the damn fuss?"

"What? The _fuss_?"

"Yeah." He sounded angry. "I'd just fallen asleep, and you come in here and fucking yell…Hyne! You scared the shit out of me."

"I ran into your stupid backpack. You turned off the light and left it in the middle of the room," she said, feeling a little angry as well. "Why didn't you wait up for me?"

He shrugged and sat back down on the bed again. "I didn't think you expected me to," he replied. Then, as an afterthought: "Sorry."

Stepping over their things, Quistis flopped down beside him, scooting all the way back so she could lean against the wall. "I guess it's okay," she said and tucked her knees up, laying her head back. It had been a long day and she was tired, but the battle and the mission still had her humming. It was impossible to rest when her mind was still whirring.

One thing bothering her was the very real possibility that Carson was right about the mission, or at least her place on it. Adrian's injury was weighing heavily on her, as was her own ineffectiveness against the monster. This wasn't fear. It wasn't what she'd felt looking up at Ultimecia on her throne, or the nightmares that had plagued her afterward. Rather, it was something older — the tossed to the wind uselessness she'd felt as a child.

_Hyne_…Carson. She hadn't bothered to write to him even on the long, boring trip from Deling City. Guiltily, she wondered if he was worrying about her.

Of course he was. That's what Carson did best.

She could have at least dropped him a note, she thought. So why didn't she?

"Seifer?"

"Yeah?"

She rolled her head to the side to look at him.

"Do you think we should try to get back to the ship?" she asked.

"What for?"

"To radio Garden…tell them what we've found. We can ask for backup and wait for them to get here while Adrian is recovering."

He shook his head. "Cid said we weren't getting any backup."

"Yeah, I know. But…now that we've definitely found something, they might change their minds."

"And our friends out there might change theirs, too," he replied. "I don't think they want all of Garden coming down here and taking over their home. I think they just want to get us the hell on our way and hope that we never come back. We're at their mercy right now."

"You don't think they'll let us go back to the ship," Quistis guessed.

"No. I don't."

"I was afraid you'd say that," she said. "This isn't right, is it? This building. These people. Something's off with them."

He sighed and leaned forward, his shoulders slumped. "Nothing about this island is right."

"Are you okay?" Quistis asked.

"Yeah. Just tired and sore. Been a while since I've been knocked around like that."

Softness melted through her worry. He looked vulnerable sitting there in a pair of sweats, just out of the shower and looking so weary.

"Here, scoot forward," she said and urged him toward the edge of the bed. He did what she asked, and she got up on her knees behind him. Then, starting from the tops of his shoulders, she began rubbing his back, kneading his tired muscles and remembering how hard they'd worked to plunge his sword through the monster's spinal cord. A little groan tore loose from his throat. Grinning, she leaned into him and put her weight behind her palms, finding every knot and working it until his breath caught.

"Hyne." He let out a long breath. "That feels good."

His back was broad and strong and warm. And the way he shifted and grumbled under her ministrations triggered something deep in Quistis. It made her blood pump a little stronger, a little hotter. She moved further down his back, working her thumbs in slow circles under his shoulder blades. "You know," she said, leaning over his shoulder, wanting so badly to collapse against him, "I wasn't really worried about this monster. I thought you and Adrian would take it easy. It was exactly what the DNA reports told us it was going to be, but the reality of that didn't really hit me until we were there, facing it. Carson tried to talk some sense into me before we left. God…I hate it when he's right about these things."

"Why are you with him anyway?" Seifer asked.

Quistis sighed. "What do you mean?"

"Brecht. What do you see in him?"

"Well…he loves me," she replied.

"That's it?"

"That's enough. Isn't it?"

Love was something she'd been searching for her whole life. And Carson might not have been a prince on a white horse or anything else she'd dreamt of as a little girl, but he loved her. All of his flaws sprang from his affection for her — his overprotectiveness, his tendency to coddle and spoil and be overbearing. But that was always what she'd thought a relationship should be. He took her to dinner. He bought her flowers. He remembered all the important dates and was always thoughtful and kind. It should have been perfect.

"What about you?" Seifer asked. "Do you love him?"

This simple question, with as obvious as the answer should have been, drew a complete blank for Quistis. What about her? Did she love him? Maybe a little. But probably not as much as he loved her. She frowned to herself and her hands slowed against Seifer's back.

"Why are we talking about Carson?" she asked, uncomfortable all of the sudden.

"You brought him up."

"I was trying to talk about the mission. Not about him."

"All right. Talk about the mission then," he said. Then he reached around his back and grabbed her hands. "Why did you stop?"

"I'm not your slave," Quistis joked. "I think that's all you're going to get."

"After I _saved your life_?"

She laughed. "Afraid so."

"I thought the life of Quistis Trepe would be worth a lot more than that," he replied, then dropped the subject. "You tired? I'm fucking exhausted."

"Yeah. But…how is this going to work?" she asked. The bed was barely big enough for the two of them to fit together like this on, and there was only one bed in this room. Since they'd insisted on not being separated, this was all they'd been given.

Seifer got up and turned off the light. "What do you mean? Lay down. Close your eyes. It'll come to you."

"No. I mean…" She stopped when he sat back down on the bed again in the dark, his arms coming around her and pulling her down.

"Please stop talking," he said. One arm had snaked all the way around her, and his hand was pressing her head down onto the pillow beside his own. "Stop thinking. Stop worrying. And just sleep. You can figure it all out tomorrow."

Quistis knew he was right. They both needed to rest, and the mystery of the island, the monster, and Sascha Maurden's death could wait. But it was hard to calm down when he was holding her like this. She was glad that it was dark so he couldn't see the wild look that must have been in her eyes, or the way her face was flushed. He was trying to shut her up — she knew that. He was exhausted and was man handling her, forcing her to sleep so that he could. But it felt like something different. And her heart was hammering.

Already half asleep, he didn't notice. She struggled to rein in whatever this was that she was feeling. Maybe, she thought, it was the after effects of adrenaline still lingering in her blood, the thrill of battle still charging through her, because it couldn't be anything else making her hand fist in the scratchy blanket underneath them.

"Don't roll over on me," she whispered.

"I won't."

Breathe, she reminded herself. Seifer's grip on her grew loose as he fell asleep. The narrow slice of mattress she had between him and the wall didn't give her any room to move away, so she did her best to settle in beside him. They'd figure all of this out in the morning. They'd get a second room, check on Adrian, and call Garden. Seifer seemed sure that it would all work out. And even though she wasn't, his certainty eased her.

It was really quite comfortable beside him, she thought. Warm. Safe. And then her own exhaustion caught up to her, crashing against her consciousness in long, dark waves.


	12. Worse Than That

Chapter 11: Worse Than That

Quistis groaned and eased her eyes open. They resisted, still heavy with sleep. The room was dark, but she could make out indistinct shapes from the dim light coming in from under the door. Seifer was still lying beside her. At some point during the night, he must have pulled the blankets over top of them because they were covered up now. Utterly relaxed, her eyes snuck closed again without her realizing their intention.

Shifting her weight slightly, she cuddled a little closer to the comforting form of her comrade. He was easy beside her, his breathing working with a regular meter, and she could feel his chest expanding and contracting against the side of her arm. Pain and worry were forgotten. Sleeping next to someone was a soothing treat that Quistis didn't often indulge in. She and Carson never slept together — she didn't feel ready to invite that kind of intimacy with him yet, and he was the perfect gentleman about it, more than willing to wait. But she liked having someone with her at night. It was nice, especially here in the middle of nowhere, not to be alone.

Beside her, Seifer shifted and grumbled softly. Her moment was coming to an end.

When he settled down again, the cadence of sleep resumed, she breathed a sigh of relief.

And as she relaxed, her mind began to whir. Seifer had asked her if she loved Carson. Until then, she'd thought that she did. Now she had to consider…was she in love with him, or in love with his love for her? A strange feeling settled in her stomach when she thought about it. Carson was affection, and devotion, everything she'd thought she wanted. Yet everyone who looked at them seemed to think they made a bad pair.

Were they right? What could they see that she couldn't?

She and Carson had a lot of common ground. They shared a lot of interests. Their first date had been filled with great discussion of everything from Dr. Odine's most recent book exploring magical theory to Garden gossip. But she also hated seeing some of her worst characteristics reflected in him, and she hated watching him live the life that she still thought should have been hers as an instructor.

So maybe it wasn't right. Still, it didn't make sense to say goodbye to her best chance at happiness for nothing. She didn't want to throw what they did have with each other away.

Shifting her focus to the problem at hand, she rolled over onto her back and looked around the darkened room. It was entirely possible that these people knew Sascha Maurden. She'd hesitated to ask the doctor or Abra until she was sure who they really were, but she felt confident that this was where Maurden had lived the last days of his life. Maybe in this very room. But she didn't yet have the answer to how or why he would have made his way here. If Garden and SeeD didn't know about these people, then Sascha Maurden certainly couldn't have. So what drew him here? How was this island and these people connected to his disappearance from Winhill, to the extremist group his mother had talked about?

"Quistis?" Seifer lifted his head, his voice thick with sleep.

"Yeah?"

"Do you know what time it is?" he asked with a yawn.

"No idea." It was impossible to tell without a window. Day. Night. She didn't have a clue.

His head fell back against the pillow. "How long have you been awake?"

"Not long. I was just thinking."

He yawned again and rolled over onto his side, facing her. "About what?"

Best to leave out her musings on Carson, she decided. "About Sascha Maurden." That was the only safe answer, and one that might actually get them somewhere.

"Do you ever stop working?"

She frowned, not entirely sure what he meant. What was he expecting? "I guess not."

Seifer didn't say anything and instead pushed himself up into a sitting position, pulling the covers off both of them. Hyperion was on the floor, and she saw him bend down to retrieve it before getting up and striding across the room.

"Where are you going?" she asked.

"To find some answers," he replied. "You coming?"

Quistis wasn't the sort of person who could get right out of bed in the morning and be ready to go. So when he turned on the light, she pressed her hands over her eyes and groaned, not understanding how Seifer could wake up and be instantly alert. Liquid and bleary eyed, she slowly sat up in bed while Seifer paced like a cat in front of her.

"Can't we just go back to sleep for a little while?" she asked.

He shook his head. "I can't sleep anymore."

Putting on her best pleading face, and throwing in a little seduction for good measure, she pulled the covers back over her legs. "Come on. Just a little longer." It was selfish and it was bad. She knew this was wrong. But she wanted him back beside her a little longer. Besides, she was still tired and wasn't ready yet to get back to the serious work of a SeeD.

But Seifer was ignoring her. He picked up his backpack and rifled through it, tossing clothing and food out onto the floor until he found what he was looking for. It was a wrist watch.

"We're…what? Two hours behind of Balamb time?" he asked.

"About."

Sighing, he shoved the watch back in his bag and flicked off the light again. "Four in the morning," he explained. Then the bed sagged as he sat back down. "I guess we can wait a little longer."

"Right." Quistis was smiling. "They're taking care of Adrian out of their own goodwill. Least we can do is not get them up at the crack of dawn."

"Who says these people have any goodwill?" Seifer asked. "Hyne. I'm wide awake now. I'm never going to fall back asleep."

Quistis stretched out, burrowing her head into the pillow. "Try," she suggested.

One hand forked through his hair, then he nodded. "All right. Fine. Let's go back to bed."

0 0 0

The world was dark, humid, and dingy among the trees. The sun, which had hardly begun to peek over the horizon, hadn't even begun to penetrate the dense jungle canopy. Bugs were thick in the air, which was filled with a raw, putrid scent. Abra's nose wasn't bothered by the smell. Rather, he followed it, letting the smell guide him where the light from his flashlight couldn't.

Brushing through the foliage, he picked his way slowly between the black trees.

He almost stumbled over what he was seeking. Up close, the smell was overpowering. But he moved the beam of his flashlight up and down the carcass and found it completely untouched. Uncompromised. Safe.

Bending down, he slid one hand over the cold, rough flesh of the animal's flank. He pushed and prodded at the muscle there, feeling for the right bone, the right joint. And when he found it, the device he was wearing around his wrist beeped and displayed a number.

_Damn._ That was what he'd been worried about. He couldn't say that he was surprised. There was no other way the SeeDs would have survived the attack. But it was still a massive disappointment and a huge setback. He activated his com-link, which buzzed for a moment before establishing a clear connection.

"I'm at the site," he announced.

"Is it confirmed?" came the voice from the other end.

"Yes. Serial ending 454."

"All right. We're on our way."

"I'll wait for you here," Abra replied, then turned off his com and sat down beside the body to wait. This was really unfortunate. It still wasn't clear how Garden had even found their island. And now their secret was far too close to being exposed before they were ready. But 454 was an animal that wouldn't be missed too badly. She was young, inexperienced. All things considered, the situation could be a lot worse.

0 0 0

Around eight thirty, Abra knocked on Seifer and Quistis's door, waking them up again. For all of his insisting that he was awake, that he couldn't sleep again once he'd gotten up, Seifer had tossed and turned only for a few minutes before passing out again. For Quistis, on the other hand, sleep proved more elusive. Mostly, she laid still, trying to keep her mind blank, dodging every thought of the mission or Carson that popped into her head. It was too uncomfortable to think of her boyfriend back home while Seifer Almasy slept beside her.

"I will take you to see your friend," Abra said when Seifer opened the door.

The path back to the room where they were keeping Adrian was a twisting path of identical hallways, and even though Quistis had an excellent sense of direction, she found herself disoriented. With no landmarks and no windows, the building might as well have been a labyrinth inside. Most of the doors had their signs peeled off, just shadows next to them on the wall where previously numbers or name plates had been screwed in.

"We moved him. He's in here now," Abra said and pointed toward and open door ahead of them.

The doctor they had seen the day before was inside. And Adrian was exactly how they'd left him, asleep.

"Good morning," the doctor greeted them, allowing Abra that chance to slink away. "How are your ribs feeling?" he asked Quistis.

"A little painful, but manageable. I'll live. Thank you." She was feeling much improved but didn't want to clue the doctor in quite yet to the fact that she had magic at her disposal.

"Be gentle with them," he admonished her. "Don't try to do too much too quickly. Give them time to heal."

"How about Adrian?" Seifer asked, his green eyes riveted on their partner. "How's he doing?"

"To be honest, not as well as I'd hoped he would be," the doctor replied. Adrian looked better than he had the day before but was still a little peaked. His cheeks were flushed and his hair was slightly damp.

"What's wrong with him?" Seifer walked up to the edge of Adrian's bed, and Quistis followed him, reaching out to take Adrian's hand in her own. His skin was hot and dry. Feverish.

"Time is everything with this poison," the doctor explained. "There's a short window you have between when it enters your body and when it starts to really do some damage. It's hard to tell at first whether you've gotten to someone in time or not. And your friend here is having a bad reaction to the solution we use to draw the toxins out of the wound. He might be allergic to something in it. I've been giving him antihistamines to control the reaction. But it's touch and go. All we can do is wait and see if we got to him in time."

Quistis swallowed. "Is it possible he might die?" She felt guilty now about indulging herself that morning and convincing Seifer to sleep in with her when Adrian was fighting this battle. She'd assumed that he was going to be fine; the doctor had seemed certain of that the day before. Now he wasn't so sure. Adrian's handsome face had a sunken look to it now.

"It's possible," the doctor said, shaking his head.

"That's not very comforting," Seifer grumbled.

"It's the truth."

Seifer cursed and Quistis gripped Adrian's hand a little more firmly. Things were starting to look dismal again. And they weren't any closer to wrapping up their mission.

"Why should we believe that you know what you're talking about?" Seifer asked. "I mean, nothing personal but…an isolated tropical island doesn't seem like the sort of place that would produce a fully trained doctor."

"I live here. And I know this animal," the doctor replied. "If you'd like me to stop looking after your friend, I do have other things I could be doing."

Shooting Seifer a reproachful look, Quistis quickly said, "No. We're really grateful that you're taking such good care of him."

The doctor nodded. "If you want, you can go right down the hallway here, take a right, then a left, and get something to eat. I'll come find you and let you know if he improves."

Quistis felt like they were being dismissed. After what Seifer had said, she wouldn't have blamed the man for wanting them out of his hair. The thought of food made her stomach gurgle excitedly, so with a shrug and a frown, she and Seifer stepped out into the hallway, leaving Adrian behind in the doctor's capable care. It was the first time they'd been allowed to find their way alone through the compound, so despite the clipped way the doctor had spoken, it seemed like a gesture of trust.

"Yesterday, he said Adrian was going to be fine," Seifer griped.

Quistis shrugged. "Things happen."

"Why are you defending him?" Seifer asked, staring at her.

"They haven't done anything but help us so far," she pointed out. "They could have left us to die in the jungle. They could have killed us in our sleep. But they didn't. So, for the moment, we don't have any reason not to trust them."

He grunted. "I don't care. I think they're dirty." His long strides were carrying him fast and far ahead of her, so Quistis had to jog to keep up with him. The directions the doctor had given them were simple. But under Seifer's guidance, they swiftly became turned around and lost. He didn't seem concerned about it. Or maybe, Quistis thought, he hadn't realized yet that he'd passed far beyond the right turn they were supposed to make. Instead he plowed on as if exactly sure where he was going.

"Why am I not seeing any food?" he finally barked.

"I think because you probably blew past it about five minutes ago," Quistis replied.

"What? Why didn't you stop me? You know, yell 'wrong way, you idiot' or something?" He propped his hands on his hips like a woman as he scolded her.

"Don't worry. I think I can find our way back. And it's a good excuse to see a little more of this place." She waved away his concern. "I was sort of hoping we'd run into someone. Like…a villager. A child maybe."

"Maybe they're all eating breakfast," Seifer suggested, "like I should be right now."

"Maybe. I'll lead this time. Back this way." They turned around and Quistis navigated back through Seifer's journey until they heard voices echoing down the hallway up ahead. It was a woman talking to a man, and her tone of voice stopped Seifer and Quistis in their tracks. She wasn't yelling. But the severe edge to her words was more than enough to tell them that the conversation taking place was one they didn't want to interrupt.

"Did you recover everything?" she asked.

"Yes," a man's voice replied. "We took all of our samples in the field and then destroyed the body."

The woman swore. "This is a mess."

"I know."

"I don't think you do," she hissed. "This couldn't have happened at a worse time. We've got another group going beta, and we needed to see that baby through to adulthood to monitor it for the alpha-T mutation. Now all that information is lost. We're going to be working in the dark here."

Puzzled, Quistis looked up at Seifer and he shook his head, apparently just as unable to make heads or tails of the conversation as she was.

"Have you made a decision about the SeeDs?" the man asked.

"Not yet. I'll let you know. Keep them occupied for now."

The conversation ended abruptly, leaving Seifer and Quistis to scramble out of the way, around a corner, so they wouldn't be seen. As they pressed up against the wall together, the gravity of what they'd overheard hit Quistis and she felt her stomach drop. There was definitely more to this compound and these people than they were letting on. And whatever they were up to, they didn't want Garden to know the truth. This was enemy territory.

She was still processing what that meant, and trying to untangle what they'd heard, when Abra's placid voice split the momentary silence. "Are the two of you lost?"

"Actually…yes," Seifer replied.

"You're missing breakfast," Abra said, his eyes narrowed and suspicious. "Follow me."

Quistis felt like a prisoner as she followed him, and new worry for Adrian suddenly assailed her. They had no choice but to let the islanders continue to care for him. They had to keep playing along until they found out what the hell was going on here. She grabbed Seifer's hand as they walked and gripped it hard. His eyes shifted casually to her and he squeezed back. She was glad to have him here with her. Because something on this island was _very_ wrong.


	13. Strung Out

Chapter 12: Strung Out

The world around Adrian shifted and swayed with uncertainty, like a row boat rocked by the sea. A sharp sense of nausea had settled over him and was aggravated by what he perceived as perpetual motion. So he withdrew further into the recesses of his mind in a feeble attempt to ignore his growing discomfort. Not yet fully aware of where he was of why he was there, he sought out the relief that unconsciousness would offer. But when oblivion didn't come after several long minutes, he tentatively began to consider his surroundings. Curiosity leaked into him and he expelled an exasperated sigh.

He didn't want to be in this wretched body; he wanted to drift off again until he could return to life as the healthy, virile man he knew. Still, human nature betrayed him. Wonder heated and turned to a fire until he didn't just _want_ to know where he was, he _had_ to know.

Slowly, he cracked open his eyes. A blurry onslaught of light assailed him and he blinked back dizziness and confusion until his surroundings shifted eerily into focus.

The room he was in was stark: metal and concrete.

Aside from the bed he was lying on, there was no other furniture except for a set of tall cabinets up against one of the walls, all of which were locked. They were painted forest green, the only real color against the whitewashed walls. It wasn't so much an uncomfortable room as it was unfriendly and clinical. And hot, Adrian realized. He was sweating.

Adrian squinted, wondering what he was doing here. As he lifted his head and became more aware, the nausea began to fade. And as the feeling left him, memories began to come back, flitting across his mind. He remembered the mission, the monster, and being attacked. He'd been injured, so Quistis and Seifer must have taken him somewhere to get him patched up.

A doctor. Yes, he remembered seeing a doctor lingering over him at some point.

As if on cue, the door to the room eased open and a man strode in. He looked at Adrian and smiled so that his upper lip peeled back from his white teeth.

"Feeling better?" he asked.

"A little, I think," Adrian replied, his voice raspy. Speaking had a bad effect on him, and for a moment he feared that he might throw up. But it passed quickly.

The man fished a set of keys out of his pocket and opened one of the cabinets. He pulled out three bottles filled with clear liquid, a small paper chart on a clipboard, and something Adrian couldn't make out. Though, as he approached Adrian's bed, he saw the glint of a needle.

"What's that?" Adrian choked out.

The man didn't reply, but drew a carefully measured amount of liquid from each of the three bottles, mixing the drugs all in one syringe.

Adrian began to panic. "What are you doing?"

"Nothing. Quiet down," the man said.

The injection, prepared and ready with a viscous little drop shining on the end of the needle, loomed over Adrian. He wanted to get up and run, but energy failed him. All he could muster was a slight groan and to roll over onto his side, which brought back the irritation of his stomach full force. A quick, sharp pain in the back of his arm as the needle went in brought an agonized cry from his throat.

"You'll feel better in a second," the man announced and disposed of the used syringe in a small hazardous waste container inside the cabinet.

Adrian watched him as he locked up then left the room. He felt heavy again. And his mind wobbled, a new sweat breaking out across his forehead. Within moments, he'd slipped back into oblivion.

0 0 0

Seifer knew that he and Quistis were in trouble. All through breakfast, Abra stuck to them like a cocklebur, sitting beside them in the still functional military mess hall and trailing along whenever either of them got up, whether to refill a glass or get a spoon. More and more, it was becoming obvious that they weren't guests. At best, they were tolerated intruders. At worst, prisoners. No one else talked to them. And there were no families sitting down to eat. No old people either, Seifer noticed. The entire island seemed to be populated by a twenty five to forty five demographic — mostly men at about a five to one ratio.

The food was bland, not the sugar and carb packed breakfast Garden hosted. Quistis had oatmeal that looked more like gruel and a hard boiled egg, Seifer a mixture of potato chunks and vegetables.

Once they were done eating, Seifer thought they might be able to shake their chaperone, but Abra stood up and said, "You should go get dressed. I will take you with me."

"Where?" Seifer asked.

"Work."

It sounded like an excuse to keep an eye on them, but there was no polite way to say no. Abra walked with them back to their room. Then he waited outside, propped against the opposite wall with his arms crossed, while they went in and closed the door behind them.

As soon as the door shut, Quistis leaned close. "We need to talk," she said quietly.

"I know."

She picked her backpack up and set it down on the bed to rifle through it for a change of clothes. "We've got to do something," she continued quietly. "What do you think?"

Seifer pulled his shirt off over his head, then leaned in close. "I think we need to get back to our ship."

"How are we going to do that?" She sat down on the edge of the bed to take off her shoes and socks, then untied the bow at the waist of her pants.

"Ask," Seifer replied with a shrug. "They can't possibly come up with a good reason not to let us go back to the ship so long as they're keeping up this appearance of being our hosts."

"Or they could just shoot us," she reminded him. "Or Adrian. They don't want us talking to Garden. They're not just going to let us walk out of here."

"So? We're SeeDs. We could handle it. And at least then, we'd know exactly what we were dealing with," he said, struggling to keep his voice down. "We don't have to sit here and let them keep us prisoner like this. Or let them make Adrian sick. You _know_ that's what they're doing. He was going to be fine yesterday, and now all the sudden he's taken a turn for the worse? It's got to be something they're doing to him so that they can keep us here until they decide what to do with us. I say, let's kick some ass."

She stood up, her face suddenly very close to his. "We can't do that yet. We've got to find out more about this monster, more about what they're up to here."

"Why?"

"Because that's our mission." She paused then and stared at him for a moment before adding, "Turn around."

"What? Why?"

Her jaw tightened. "So I can change. Please don't argue with me about it. We don't have time."

Because she was right, he turned his back.

The sight of Quistis's shirt flying onto the bed in his peripheral vision made his stomach tighten, and as he pulled his pants off, he found himself thinking about how she'd talked him back into bed with her that morning. She'd looked incredible lying there half covered by the blankets, her hair mussed and her expression soft and sexy. _Hyne_. Who _wouldn't_ have gotten back in bed with her, even if it was only to sleep. Knowing she was undressing behind him right now, it became impossible to think about anything else. Was she thinking about him, too, he wondered? He hoped so. He hoped she wasn't thinking about that goddamned instructor boyfriend of hers.

Just thinking about Brecht made him angry; Quistis deserved better. But it also concerned him that he was coming to care about it so damn much. Caring about other people only made life more complicated. And it had never done _him_ any good. Look where caring about Rinoa had gotten him.

Struggling into a clean pair of pants, he tried to clear his head.

He knew that no matter how delicate and feminine she appeared, Quistis Trepe was a SeeD through and through. She was one of the best and everyone knew it. She didn't need him to help her sort out her love life or anything else. But reminding himself that she was a soldier didn't help. Instead, he found himself thinking of the way she lashed her whip through the air and the way she wore the heat of battle with perfect composure. It was sexy in a raw, animalistic sort of way. Even when she'd beat the shit out of him on the Ragnarok, it had been a pleasure just to see her cast. Thinking of the pain of being lit up with fire from her hands and the dark pleasure of lying next to her at night did nothing to stave the surge of blood roaring through his heart.

"I want to sneak around a bit," Quistis said behind him, catching him off guard.

"Sneak around?"

"Yeah. Tonight. They're going out of their way to keep an eye on us, so there must be something in this building they don't want us to see."

Seifer pulled on a fresh shirt. "You can't do that. You'll get lost," he objected.

"No. _You_ would, but I won't." She sighed and tapped him on the shoulder, indicating he could turn back around. When he did, he saw that she'd put on a pair of shorts and a vest, half zipped up over top of a thin, white tank top. "If you'd rather just go running into the trees and take your chances with the monster, tell me now," she said.

"I would."

Her blue eyes narrowed and she crossed her arms tightly in front of her in that closed off, taking no shit stance she'd used on him since she'd been his instructor. "Well that's too bad. I'm the leader on this mission."

Stepping a little closer to her, Seifer sneered. "Okay, _leader_…once we find out all this intel, what are we going to do then? The longer we wait, the more dangerous it's going to get to try and escape. You heard what that woman said. She hasn't decided what to do with us yet_._ It'll be a lot goddamn easier to get out of here before they all have permission to kill us."

"We won't delay long," Quistis promised.

"Maybe they're taking us out into the jungle to kill us right now," he suggested darkly.

To his utter surprise, she smiled. "The monster might be immune to magic, but they're not. And I'm junctioned up the wazoo. I can handle Abra."

Though he was amused by her bravado, and even more by her unexpected use of the word "wazoo," he didn't get the chance to respond because Abra knocked on their door with three sharp raps and yelled, "Are you ready? We need to go."

"Coming!" Quistis called back, then looked up at Seifer and quietly added, "Just give me one more night. Trust me."

One more night. Hell, that was tempting. Before he knew it, he was nodding and she was smiling up at him.

The second they emerged from their room, Abra took off down the hallway and waved one hand indicating that they were to follow him. Seifer was surprised when he led them to the main door of the compound and then outside. It was already hot and humid out. A colorful bird swooped by, slicing through a cloud of insects hovering at eye level just outside the door. Filled with suspicion that they were being taken somewhere to be disposed of, Seifer prodded his guardian force awake and checked on his magic inventory. He didn't use magic often. But he always had a few fire spells on hand. Without Hyperion, it made him feel more secure to have his magic buzzing at the ready in his brain.

They took a thin, well-beaten trail that looped around the building and then continued on into the jungle.

"What sort of work are we going to be doing?" Quistis asked.

Abra looked over his shoulder and Seifer thought he saw the man's mouth twitch with a hint of a smile. "You'll see."

The jungle quickly consumed any evidence of civilization, completely obscuring the massive building they'd come from. But as they walked, the trees suddenly thinned and then opened into a perfectly square patch of land that was overflowing with an incredible variety of vegetable plants, all heavy with their bounty.

"This is our garden," Abra explained. "We need to keep the forest out, so we need to clear all the vines. And then there's a plot over that way we're going to prepare for the next rotation. The soil here isn't very good, so we let it lay fallow and only use a garden patch once every three years."

Seifer scowled. What did these people think he was, a farmer? The heat and the bugs were intense, and within minutes of crouching down in the garden patch, Seifer was miserable. He had a difficult time telling jungle weed from desirable plant and had pulled up several handfuls of some kind of squash before Abra stopped him. He quickly discovered that both Quistis and Seifer were utterly useless at this sort of task, both of them doing more harm than help, and he moved them on to the fallow patch which needed to be tilled. This work was simple, impossible to screw up, but more back breaking. Under Abra's constant supervision, they worked up and down in rows, turning the soil and ripping up what had grown in it with primitive hand tools.

It didn't take long for Seifer to seriously begin to consider his plan of escape again. They could kill Abra, sneak back to the compound, and rescue Adrian before anyone knew what was happening. But even now, Quistis didn't seem ready to budge from her decision.

So they worked.

And in the late afternoon, when Abra finally released them and let them return to the compound to eat, Seifer was allowed to stop at Adrian's room. With some hesitation, he pushed the door open and walked in, a little afraid he might find the other man awake and talkative. This wasn't his forte. He wasn't good at interacting with people who weren't either trying to kill him or fighting beside him. But Adrian was still out cold, sweating so profusely that someone had hooked an IV into the crook of his arm. Seifer checked the bag just to make sure it was labeled as saline solution. It was. But who knew what else the doctor might had added to it.

He reached down and laid his hand on Adrian's arm.

"We're going to get you out of here," he promised under his breath. "I swear to Hyne, we'll find out what's going on here and then destroy the fucking place."

Adrian didn't stir. He just laid there while drugs dripped into his arm — he was their tender underbelly, and these people had a knife pressed right up against it. With a quiet curse, Seifer left the room, hating that he had to wait. Patience had never been one of his virtues.

0 0 0

"What now?" the woman asked when Abra walked into the room. She didn't turn around to look at him, instead keeping her eyes fixed on an open notebook in front of her.

"They're getting restless," he said.

"Doesn't matter."

"Doesn't it? I played babysitter all day. How long are we going to do this?"

"I've been thinking…" she said. "Maybe it's luck they landed here just now. We can use them in our field tests. It will be nice to have some solid field data for the next beta. Keep them occupied for now until I decide where to use them."

"All right."

"Take care of their ship. And if they manage to contact their superiors, dispatch Lucy to take care of them."

That was an order he'd look forward to fulfilling. "Consider it done."


	14. Shadow Cat

Chapter 13: Shadow Cat

Carson Brecht sat down at his desk, his freshly starched uniform pinching and chafing. He relished the discomfort of the formal Balamb Garden uniform. It was a constant reminder to him that he was an instructor at the best military training facility in the entire world with a blonde bombshell of a girlfriend who was so beautiful that she had her own fan club. Life had treated him well; he was a happy man.

The remains of the previous night's dinner at a posh Balamb restaurant sat on his desk in a to-go box, and the smell of the freshly microwaved meal was making his mouth water. He flipped the box open and looked down at the long, flat noodles smothered in a rich creamy sauce with a smile. They were practically begging to be eaten, lavishing in their container like a naked woman on silk sheets, waiting to sate his hunger.

_Ah, Hyne. _

Since when did dinner become so sexual?

He really missed Quistis.

He took a bite and then turned in his chair to check his messages. Pleasant thoughts were running through his mind as his fingers moved across the keys and logged into the Balamb Garden network. He was really hoping that he might have a new message from his girlfriend, some hint as to how her mission was going or just a short line letting him know that she was okay. When his mail finally loaded, he had two new messages. He opened the first:

_Mr. Brecht,_

_Thank you for your interest in our magazine. However, we regret to inform you that we do not have any staff openings or freelance opportunities at this time. We wish you luck on any future forays you may make into the world of journalism._

_Timber Maniacs_

Carson frowned. If complete idiots like Laguna Loire could write for _Timber Maniacs_, why couldn't he? Frankly, the magazine could use a dose of class. And as an instructor, he thought he had plenty of interesting stories and insights to share. He shrugged. _Their loss._

He opened the second message.

_Garden staff,_

_Please be sure to have all of your evaluations in by the end of the week. Also, grades and ranks will be coming out at the end of the month. Remember to have all of your paperwork filed by the twenty fifth! Thank you!_

_Xu_

Nothing from Quistis? He was disappointed and shoved another forkful of pasta into his mouth as he contemplated things. He hadn't heard a word from her since they'd left. For the past few days, he'd been assuming that meant they'd found the island and were busy exploring. After all, if they were still traveling, what else would she have to do but write to him? It was difficult for him to imagine her stuck on a tiny boat with Seifer and Adrian, two of the world's most tiresome men. Seifer was a loser and a screw up, the worst kind of nobody. And Adrian was famous only for his reputation with women. The man had gotten into more panties in Garden than the Island Closest to Heaven had malboros. Together they were everything bad about SeeDs, all arrogance and blood lust without substance. He wouldn't have blamed Quistis if she'd already killed them both.

But now he was starting to get worried. He was beginning to wonder if her silence was evidence that something horrible had happened. Maybe Adrian had done something stupid, or Seifer had gotten Quistis hurt and she was stranded in the middle of the ocean without anyone there to help her. Throwing down his fork, he got up from his desk and started toward the third floor. He needed to have a chat with Cid.

Xu looked surprised when he entered the headmaster's office.

"Can I help you, Instructor Brecht?" she asked.

"I need to speak to the headmaster. Is he in?"

"Not right now." She shook her head. "It's after hours. He's eating dinner."

"Well, I need to speak to him immediately," Carson replied. "It's about Quistis."

"What about her?"

"Something's happened to her."

"What?"

"I don't know. But I haven't heard from her in days," he explained.

"I'm sure she's fine," Xu soothed. "She's just on a mission. She's busy. And Seifer and Adrian are with her. They're more than capable of—"

"Please! Don't talk to me about Seifer and Adrian," Carson interrupted. "Just tell the headmaster I need to speak to him when he gets back. Have him call me. I don't care what time it is."

"All right." Xu shrugged and wrote a note on a small pad of pink paper on her desk. "I'll let him know."

He'd never let Quistis run off blindly into danger like this again, he promised himself as he left.

0 0 0

Quistis unzipped her vest. Seifer stood behind her, his presence radiating throughout the room. It made her nervous knowing he was so close at hand, even if he wasn't actually watching her undress. Carefully, she hooked the few hair pins she'd scrounged from the bottom of her backpack to the front of her bra, lining them up right between her breasts where she could easily access them. Behind her, Seifer was pulling some wire from the collar of his trench coat. He was angry about having to rip his beloved coat apart and swore every time the fabric tore.

"Here. This is all you're getting," he said and handed her a chunk of wire.

"Should be enough," she said and added it to the growing arsenal on her bra. Her feet were bare against the cool cement floor and her whip was already coiled at her side. The weight of it there was reassuring.

"Don't do anything stupid out there," Seifer said as she zipped her vest.

"I'll do what I have to in order to get what we need. But…I'll be careful. Don't worry."

"I meant, don't screw up," he replied.

Ah, Seifer. He hadn't lost any of that special Almasy charm.

"If you're not back in an hour, I'm coming to get you," he added. "And I don't care if they've developed the cure for cancer here, I'll kill them all. Understood?"

"Absolutely."

She wouldn't have felt safer even if Squall himself were baking her up. Still, she could feel the adrenaline rush coming. This was what she had been trained to do: infiltrating enemy territory, defeating evil, gathering intel. She hadn't had a mission quite like this one since the Galbadian missile base years ago. Though, hopefully, this one would have a better end than the Galbadian one which had found her hiding with Selphie and Irvine inside an armored vehicle while the entire base explosively self-destructed around them.

"Wish me luck," she said.

He smiled. "Luck is for people who need it."

Blushing a little, remembering so many years before when she'd teased him about needing a dose of luck to pass his field exam, she quietly slipped out of the room and into the half-lit hallway. It was late, long past dark, and there was no light coming from underneath most of the doors she passed. She had an idea where she was going but was only half sure how to get there. The area she and Seifer were staying in was obviously a dormitory wing — there'd be nothing interesting there. She wanted to get back to was the hallway where they'd overheard the conversation since that seemed to be both a restricted area Abra did not want them in and an area frequented by the people in charge. It was her best bet of finding a solid lead.

She was approaching the cafeteria when she heard voices up ahead and ducked into an intersecting hallway, plastering herself up against the wall and straining to hear every word.

"…think they know?" A male voice, low baritone.

"I doubt it." This one was female. Though, they weren't the same couple she'd overheard before.

"Did you hear about 454?" the man asked. "It's a fucking shame. Was just a baby yet. I didn't even get the chance to check it for the I9 mutation before they destroyed the body…said that wasn't a high priority concern. Like, yeah…whatever. They'll change their minds if it manifests in the beta group."

"I heard," the woman replied, then changed the subject. "Are you going to stay?"

"With you?" he asked, sounding playful.

"Well…yeah." She giggled girlishly, like the way Rinoa sometimes would. Quistis supposed it was supposed to sound seductive or innocent.

"You know where're supposed to be on call tonight."

"I know. At least this way we'll both be up. Besides…nothing's going to happen," she said and let loose a breathy groan that made Quistis want to gag.

"You're dangerous," the man said, and she heard them kiss. "I like that. Let's go."

Their footsteps hurried by and she caught a glimpse of them as they passed. They were young like everyone else here. Sascha Maurden's age. She stood quiet and still where she was until she heard a door slam down the hall. Then she cautiously continued on.

The first door that caught her interest didn't have any lights on, but thick cables running along the ceiling ran through a hole drilled through the wall and into the room. She crept slowly up to the door and then pressed her ear against it, listening for any sounds from within. After several long moments of hearing nothing at all, she was satisfied that the room was empty and dropped to her knees, reaching inside her vest to retrieve the wire Seifer had pulled from his coat. She bent it in half so that it would be stronger, then slowly inserted it into the lock, feeling for the right mechanism. When she found it, she held it back with the wire, then retrieved a pin and used it to pop the lock.

_Easy_. Grinning to herself, she slipped the pin and the wire back into her cleavage and silently opened the door. Locking picking was a skill Garden didn't even teach anymore. But damn if it didn't come in handy from time to time. Inside, she shut the door behind her and turned the lock again before running her hand along the wall in search of the light switch.

When it flashed on, she was amazed to see row upon row of computers.

Where the hell were these people getting the energy to run an entire computer lab? Pursing her lips, she walked down the first row and pressed keys on each of the computer keyboards, hoping one of them had been left on and would wake up. None did. But they were all wired — both to one another and to large, boxy printers at the end of each row. It looked unnervingly similar to the lab Garden had recently added to the library.

Puzzled and intrigued, she shut off the lights and escaped back out into the hallway.

The cables running along the ceiling showed her three more computer rooms next to this one. If each were the same size, that would mean they easily had two computers for every person on the island. Perhaps, she thought, they'd been left behind by Esthar, though that seemed unlikely. These weren't the old models that the Estharan military would have left behind. If the islanders had brought all the equipment here, she couldn't imagine what they were using it for. It was a an awful lot of processing power.

As she kept moving, something new got her attention: a set of double-doors. The lock on these was different, more complicated, and she crouched in front of it for several minutes before the lock finally gave way. Releasing the breath she hadn't been aware of holding, she turned the handle and opened one of the doors.

She didn't have to turn on a light. This room was already partially illuminated by an orange glow coming from a set of glass cases covering the whole of one wall. On the shelves sat row after row of jars, each with something the size of a fist floating inside. It looked like a mad scientist's laboratory. And the entire room reeked with the plastic stench of formaldehyde. Quietly, she shut the door behind her and padded over to the first case to peer inside.

It was a specimen collection. Every jar contained a pathetic, wrinkled fetus clearly labeled with genus and species. Quistis walked from one case to another, astounded and horrified by the breadth of the collection: t-rexaur, blue dragon, ruby dragon, hexadragon, bite bug, abyss worm. They even had a tiny, still undifferentiated mass labeled "malboro." Horrified, she stood back and took it all in, not yet able to process what it meant. The tiny teeth and claws, the open but unseeing eyes of monsters she'd only ever seen on remote, dangerous islands. It was impossible to guess how they'd managed to amass such a menagerie. Even Garden would have had trouble putting this together.

"Hyne…" she breathed and moved onto the last case. This one was different than the others. The jars themselves were labeled only with numbers and dates. And every specimen inside was the same species. Or…close to it. One had a half-formed wing sprouting out of its back. Another had two heads. And another was covered in scaly growths all over its tiny body. Still, they were all recognizable as the monster that had attacked her team in the jungle.

She turned around and was bending down to sift through some papers lying spread out on one of the desks when she heard someone coming. There wasn't much time to think. She dove under the desk and pulled the chair back in, pushing her knees up against her chest.

The door swung open an a pair of high heels entered. Quistis heard the regular clack of the woman's footsteps as she walked past the specimen jars without pausing and then stopped in front of the desk next to Quistis's. She held her breath, afraid that the woman would hear, and tried to slow the frantic beating of her heart. The person picked up some papers, tapped them against the desk, and sighed.

"Abra?"

From out in the hallway, he answered. "Yes?"

"Why wasn't the door locked? We've been over this. With the SeeDs here, we can't take any chances. Remind everyone in the morning of our new protocol."

"Sure. It won't happen again."

"It had better not."

Abra walked into the room. "I'll handle it. You should go get some sleep."

"I haven't been able to sleep since they got here," she admitted.

"It's a wrench," Abra replied. "But everyone's working as fast as they can. We're really close. And anyway, if it gets to that point, the shadow cats are more than able to get the job done. 454 was a fluke…a juvenile. I've already released Lucy as a precaution."

"Lucy? Good."

The woman left the desk, walking back toward the door again. "Deliver these for me, and then go check on the SeeDs. Make sure they haven't been out of their room."

"Yes, sir."

The door closed behind them, and Quistis had to force herself to sit still and wait. Her legs itched to bolt for the door and her heart was pounding in her ears. But she needed to be calm. She didn't wait as long as she should have before crawling out from under the desk and escaping out into the hallway. Thankfully, the woman and Abra were both gone.

Light footed, she ran back the way she had come, whipping past the computer rooms and the cafeteria back into the dormitory wing. She had no idea how much time she had before Abra would be knocking on her door. But if he got there before her, Adrian was as good as dead. And if he got there and found her still up and dressed, he'd definitely be suspicious enough that the woman in charge might decide to hedge her bets and have them all killed.

_Damn._ She needed a plan. And there was no time.

Turning now into the hallway where her and Seifer's room was, she picked up her pace. Abra wasn't there yet.

She lurched to a halt in front of their room and, gasping for breath, slipped inside. They needed a good alibi. Something that wouldn't be questioned. Something, she thought with a flash, that would explain why the hell she was so out of breath. Only one thing came to mind.

Seifer was sitting on the bed and had just opened his mouth to ask her what was going on when she reached out and turned off the light.

"Get undressed," she said.

"_What?_"

"Now!"

Desperately, she unzipped her vest and threw it onto the floor, then wriggled out of her shorts. She'd never shed her clothing so fast before in her entire life. In the dark, she couldn't see what Seifer was doing. But as she struggled to unclasp her bra, she thought she heard someone walking toward their room. _Hyne —_ they were out of time. She managed to pop her bra clasp and dropped the garment as she ran across the room to Seifer. More forcefully than she had intended, she pushed him down onto the bed again and leapt on top of him.

He was trying to say something when she knotted her hands in his hair and pinned him to the mattress with a passionate kiss.

Their lips connected for a startling moment and Quistis felt like her heart might swell and burst with the gallons of blood pumping through it. Then their door swung open and the lights flared on.

Tearing her mouth from Seifer's, Quistis shrieked.

His arms flew around her as he rolled to one side, hiding her with his body and holding her tight, cradling her face against his shoulder.

"What the _fuck!_" he yelled at the same time as the man who had interrupted them, Abra, called out an apology and slammed the door, not even bothering to turn the light off again.

For a brief moment after he was gone, Quistis was bathed in relief. And then, like a wrecking ball, the fact that she was lying naked in Seifer's arms hit her. Her body was still throbbing as her heart raced, and her breathing was ragged, every breath she sucked in pressing her chest to his.

"That was close," she whispered, not sure what else to say.

Seifer hadn't let go of her yet.

"They just about caught me," she added. "And we…uh…I needed a…" God. It was hard to think so close to him like this. She swallowed and pressed her hands against his chest. As he moved back, she grabbed the sheet and pulled it up to cover herself. "I need to tell you what I found. You won't believe it."

He arched an eyebrow. "I don't know. I can believe a lot right now."


	15. Inside and Out

Chapter 14: Inside and Out

Seifer felt dizzy and couldn't see straight as Quistis sat up in bed next to him, the sheets clutched tightly to her chest. All he could think about was the dark timber of her voice when she asked him to undress, the delicious warmth of her chest pressed against his, and her fingers scraping against his scalp as she kissed him. _Sweet Hyne_. He rolled over a little, hoping to hide how much her stunt had turned him on.

"They have huge rooms filled with computers," she said.

"Computers, huh?" He feigned interest, more captivated by the wisps of hair that had escaped from her ponytail and were now framing her face. Her image swam before his eyes like sweet honey and he had to give himself a mental shake to get his thoughts back on track.

"Yeah. Rows and rows of them. There's more computers on this island than people," she continued. "New hardware, too. Not old stuff Esthar left behind. And then guess what I found."

He didn't want to guess.

More than that, he still wasn't thinking rationally enough to guess. And judging from the breathless way she was talking, he thought Quistis wasn't as unaffected as she was pretending to be either. He fumbled to process what it might mean. Obviously, what she'd done had been to keep them alive, to convince Abra that she'd been in their room all along after he came close to catching her — something he still hadn't gotten any details on. But why the hell would leaping naked on top of him be the first plan to come to her mind? Did she secretly want him? Being with Brecht, she was probably sex starved. And he was easily twice the man the instructor could ever hope to be. Maybe she'd just taken the chance and seized it.

Seifer's ego soared.

"I found specimens," she continued. "In jars. Dozens of them. Every monster you can think of, they have it. And they have the one from the jungle, too. They created it, Seifer. They genetically engineered it from other animals."

That got his attention. "These people? No way," he said, sitting up. "Where would they get that kind of technology?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. But if they created this thing, we've got to consider why. Think about it. Highly resistant to magic? It's like they designed it specifically to go up against SeeDs. And they want to keep us here. They're making Adrian _sick_ just to keep us here."

"So they can test it against us," he said, completing her thought. "But we already killed one. Doesn't that prove it's not SeeD-proof?"

"A juvenile," she replied. "The one we fought wasn't a full grown adult."

"Shit."

He ran his hand through his hair, dull dread leaking into him. The fight with the monster had taken everything he had. It was fast and strong, and its skin had been so tough that it had taken all of his strength to drive Hyperion through it. They'd barely gotten out of the battle alive. And if Abra hadn't tended to Adrian's wounds, he certainly would have died from the poison. The idea that such a thing could be engineered was startling.

"We've got to figure out some way to get out of here and call for back-up," Quistis continued. "Once we explain the situation, I'm sure Cid will send someone. The last thing Garden wants is the Galbadians getting their hands on one these things and setting it loose in Dollet or Balamb."

She shifted, wrapped the sheets tighter around her body, and moved to get up. Quickly, Seifer reached out and held her back.

"Not yet," he said. He was in just his boxers. And Quistis, he suspected, was completely naked. "First, tell me what _that_ was all about." He had to know.

She blushed and looked away. "Abra was coming to check on us. I'd left a door unlocked on accident, and someone told him to make sure we were behaving. I needed something that he couldn't doubt. And…sex seemed like the perfect thing. No one would think twice about it."

"How did you think of it?"

She laughed a little, obviously embarrassed. "I came across this couple while I was out there," she admitted. "They gave me the idea."

He smirked, wanting to say that he hoped she had ideas like that more often. This mission with her was beginning to change his preference for working alone.

"Can I get up now?" she asked, her mouth forming a hard line in response to his smile.

"Sure. Go ahead."

He didn't bother to get up with her, figuring it would be better for the moment to remain seated until he'd calmed down a little more. So he watched as Quistis secured the sheet under her arms and went about collecting her things. When she'd taken off her bra, the pins she'd secured to it had flown all over the room. And her clothing was similarly dispersed. She crouched down to pick up her shorts and her vest, then paused and turned around in place, looking for something.

Maybe she wasn't impassioned for him after all, he thought. That was a little disappointing even though it helped him collect himself enough to get up. Still, the feel of her against him was going to be burned into his mind forever. He knew he'd never be able to look at her the same way again. And he knew that he was going to have to beat the ever loving hell out of Carson Brecht the next time he saw him.

With an almost inaudible whimper, Quistis admitted, "I can't find my underwear."

Hyne. This was too good. Seifer couldn't suppress the chuckle that rose up in his throat. The impact of what Quistis had discovered, as terrifying as it was, faded in comparison to this. There was nothing they could do until morning anyway. So for the moment, he was overcome by sweet, sticky joy. Grinning, he picked up his pants and spotted Quistis's black panties underneath them. Could this night get any better?

"Hey, Quistis." He held the garment up. "Guess what I've got."

She walked over to him with one hand outstretched. "Thanks."

For some reason he couldn't fathom, he didn't let go when she tugged on them. Instead, he held tight and stepped closer to her.

"Seifer," she said, her eyes wide when she looked up at him. "What are you doing?"

"I don't know," he replied quietly.

And he didn't. It felt like his body was moving on its own. But he didn't need to think about it as he pulled her closer. The air around them was thick with tension and the unspoken lust let loose by Quistis's kiss. She had to feel it, too. The way she was looking up at him, as if she were aware of her every breath and heartbeat and alive with the memory of his touch, lit a fire in his stomach. Even though he knew that he was treading on forbidden ground, he leaned down toward her. Slowly, Quistis closed her eyes and tilted her face to meet him.

He kissed her. And she melted into him like she belonged there.

They both dropped her forgotten underwear to the floor, and Seifer cradled her face in his hands so that he could kiss her harder, demanding more. A small, innocent kiss wasn't enough after what she'd done. Now all he wanted was teeth and tongue and desperation. She kissed him back, rising on her toes so that she could be just as aggressive. Her eager mouth and the way she reached up with one hand to fist it in his hair again lent him fervor. And their tug of war for dominance quickly became frenzied and lost. Soon, he had his both of his arms around her, and the only thing holding her sheet in place was the tight lock between their bodies.

She groaned from deep back in her throat, the genuine sort that couldn't be controlled or muffled.

_Sweet heaven_. He wanted to hear her do that again. It made him shudder and go weak so that he wasn't sure if he could stay standing. Somehow, he did. And he captured her mouth again. It was desperate, the way he was kissing her. Like he couldn't survive without her.

Instinctively, he pressed his hips to hers. She responded by digging her nails into his back and clutching him closer, grinding against him even as she broke their kiss. Her head fell back, exposing her throat. It looked like an invitation, so Seifer trailed kisses across the underside of her jaw and over the tender flesh covering her racing pulse.

"We can't do this," she said, out of breath.

"Why?"

She sighed, but it sounded more like a moan. "Because it's wrong."

He knew that. God, he knew that and he didn't fucking care.

"It's Carson," she whispered. "I'm in a relationship."

Seifer shook his head and swore, reflexively feeling possessive and furious.

"And…we're on a mission. We have to focus," she continued.

He let her go and stepped away, knowing that if he stayed where he was he might not. But she followed him, allowing her sheet to slip a little in her haste to grab his hand.

"I just can't," she explained. "It's not fair to anyone. Besides, Carson is so…and you are…" She ran out of steam, unable to say whatever it was she was thinking.

"Spit it out," he demanded. Her rejection was still stinging, and although he was afraid of what she might say he thought it was better to hear it now if she was really in love with Brecht and save the both of them a lot of pain and trouble.

"I didn't mean for this to happen," she said, managing to speak fluidly without the quaver her voice had before. "We're SeeDs. And we do what we have to when we're on a mission."

"Oh. Is that it? That was a chore? And I'm just some fucking chump?" He felt like an ass getting so angry, but he couldn't help it.

She shook her head. "That's not what I said."

"Sure sounded like it."

He knew she'd felt something, too. It wasn't just that she'd done what she had to and he'd taken it the wrong way. The way she'd reacted hadn't been a trained response or something she'd done out of duty. He hadn't imagined the way her heart had thundered under his lips, or the spots on his back where she'd dug her fingertips in as he kissed her. She'd wanted him, too. So why was she pretending now like she didn't? He couldn't help think that it was because he was Seifer Almasy and she was Quistis Trepe. And she didn't want to be associated with him that way.

"Listen. Can we talk about this later?" she asked. "After we've both calmed down."

"Fine," he growled and stalked over to the light switch. The darkness felt cold and barren when he flicked the lights off, not at all the comfortable and silent cocoon they'd enjoyed together the night before. Maybe kissing her had been a mistake, he thought. It had opened up a Pandora's box of potential complications.

He climbed back into bed and scooted as far as he could toward the wall. If she brought it up again and wanted to talk about it, he would. Otherwise, he'd do his best to forget that anything had ever happened between them. He didn't think he wanted to remember if it could never happen again.

0 0 0

Quistis laid silently in the dark, her back pressed up against Seifer's in bed. He was angry with her, and she couldn't blame him. Hell, she was angry with herself. That kiss hadn't been his fault. Nor had it been his fault that she'd put a stop to it. He hadn't done anything wrong. In fact, he'd done everything spectacularly right; she'd never been kissed with that much passion. Her body was still buzzing with it. But she'd made a commitment to Carson, and it wasn't fair to either him or Seifer for her to indulge in an affair without breaking things off first.

Honestly, she was surprised and bothered by the quick response Seifer had gotten from her. Even when she'd first run into the room in a panic and kissed him, she'd felt something stir. Then afterward when she was lying naked beside him, wrapped in their bed sheet, and he was in just his underwear, the enormity of what she had done began to hit her.

It was hard to admit how much she'd wanted him then and how much she still wanted him now. He was right beside her, warm and inviting. And they were both so far away from civilization and the rules that went with it. There was nothing but the law of the jungle out here. And tomorrow they could both die trying to escape the island and go for help. Then what would her fidelity mean?

Carson had never made her shudder and groan quite like that. No one had.

But Seifer…why him?

She'd known him all of her life. And for most of that time, she'd taken him for granted. He'd never really noticed her and she'd never really noticed him. How could sparks as hot as these hide between them for so long? It was possible they wouldn't last and would burn out quickly. Maybe their sudden chemistry was just a fluke of this time and this place. Carson, on the other hand, was steady and reliable. She knew he would never leave her and would always treat her right. He was always doting and affectionate. He was in _love_ with her. But their relationship wasn't very exciting or deep. He'd never rocked her or made her forget herself. The memory of Seifer's passion, however, was going to be branded onto her soul forever. She couldn't imagine ever forgetting that.

He shifted beside her, rolling over onto his back. Quistis rolled all the way over to face him.

"Hey." She prodded him.

A grumble and a sigh were the only response she got.

Seifer was wrapped up in a blanket, and she was wrapped up in their sheet. She'd put her underwear back on after he'd gotten into bed again and had pulled on a t-shirt before lying down on the mattress beside him. Now she wanted some of their intimacy back. So she pulled the blanket back off of him.

"What the hell?" He grabbed at it, then settled when she threw the sheet over both of them and pulled the blanket back on top.

"Sorry," she said, then scooted a little closer to him under the covers, glad to be sharing them again. "And I mean about everything."

"I'm tired," he complained.

"I know. But we could both be dead by this time tomorrow. So I don't want to go into that with you mad at me."

What she wanted, really _wanted_, was to close the distance between them completely and abandon herself to the wild desire building in her heart. She still knew it was a bad idea. But she also knew it might be the only chance she'd get. If this was a fading, temporary thing, then maybe it was right to seize the moment and experience it while she could. _Hyne_…she didn't know. This island and this man were turning her inside out.

"It's fine. I forgive you," he said. "Now go to sleep. We have a lot to do tomorrow."

She didn't believe him. But he didn't turn away from her, so she let the issue drop. Sighing, Quistis settled in beside him, taking what little comfort she could from his steady, solid body beside hers. Why when she just thought she had life sorted out did Seifer have to come along and change everything? That kiss had made a mountain. And she wasn't sure now whether or not Carson was worth climbing it for.


	16. Dark Water

Chapter 15: Dark Water

Gossip, Quistis found out, spread even faster on a small island than it did through a school. When she and Seifer sat down to breakfast the next morning, everyone in the room turned to look at them. Some people were even brazen enough to gesture and whisper behind their hands. It seemed like everyone in the entire compound had heard that Abra had caught them in a compromising position the night before.

"We're famous," Seifer said under his breath.

"I can tell," she replied.

The full light of morning had done a lot to replace their confusion and lust with renewed focus on the task at hand. All the young faces staring at them, judging them, were far from innocent themselves. Every one of them were somehow involved in engineering monsters. They were manufacturers of terror and death. It wasn't difficult for Quistis to shrug off her embarrassment in favor of contempt.

"Doesn't matter," Seifer said, reflecting her thoughts. "We won't be here much longer."

She and Seifer had spent most of the morning discussing what Quistis had discovered and developing a plan of escape. They both agreed that they couldn't remain in the compound any longer. Everyone on the base was busy during the day. But Abra shadowed them everywhere they went. Even now, he was sitting at the next table, watching them over his breakfast. There was no way they would be able to retrieve Adrian under his guard. So they'd agreed that night would be their best shot. Quistis was guessing from what she'd overheard the night before about people frequently forgetting to lock doors that the island's isolated location had allowed them to become fairly lax about security. She was positive that they'd be able to make it out without too much trouble.

The real problem was the monster — the shadow cat. They had barely escaped their first run in with the beast, and this time they would be running through the jungle in the dark with the added weight and hassle of a prone man. The odds were stacked against them. They had no idea how far they'd have to trek through the trees before reaching their boat. It was going to be difficult if they had to carry Adrian the whole way, or worse…leave him behind to save themselves. With any luck, getting Adrian away from the doctor and whatever the man was giving him would bring him about.

_Luck_. It made Quistis uncomfortable how much of this plan relied on luck.

They were betting their lives. And she had never been the gambling type.

0 0 0

Cid fussed at his sweater, pulling it down over his belt. It was becoming a habit, a detrimental twitch, and he knew he needed to stop. The garment was getting stretched out with how often he'd been tugging and pulling at it recently.

A long, glossy table spread out in front of him. Each side was filled with the apathetic faces of the Garden governance board. They didn't want to be in this meeting and weren't particularly interested in the mission that Cid had called them there to discuss. Since they had already gone over this mission, it was a bit unorthodox to do so again. Garden couldn't afford to be tied to every SeeD and had a habit of letting go of missions that were going awry; it allowed them to classify failed missions as rogue acts and avoid legal scraps with other institutions.

But Quistis, Seifer, and Adrian had gone for a long time now without checking in, and Carson Brecht was more impassioned than Cid could ever remember seeing him when he insisted that something had gone wrong. Somehow, he'd even managed to rein in the support of the young forensics woman who had worked in the preliminary aspects of the mission. Back then, it had been a simple case of transporting a body from the Centra shore to Deling City. Cid wasn't sure exactly how it had turned into this mess.

He pulled his sweater over his stomach and addressed the board.

"We've been asked here by Mr. Brecht to consider sending reinforcements to our men in the southern sea," he announced.

He hated this. There had been a time when he hadn't needed to consult this board to make decisions. But since Garden has lost its major benefactor, Norg, during the war, he'd had to create a more democratic structure in order to satisfy their new investors. It was a difficult change to make and he hated handing over his power to this fickle committee. But that was life.

"Have we heard anything from the team?" one woman asked.

"No." Cid shook his head. "That's the problem."

"You think they're dead?" another person asked.

Cid blanched. Seifer and Quistis were practically his children.

"I don't think so," Cid replied. "They're all very good SeeDs."

"Can someone please remind me what the whole point of this mission was?" a heavyset man roared.

"The monster," Cid replied.

"Right," he said, waving one chubby arm. "They go to the island, kill one, and bring it back. Correct? These three are some of our best. If they can't get one off the island, I don't think we need to worry about the goddamn Galbadians doing it. If they're dead, the mission's over and it's not something we need to worry about."

"It could just be a communication glitch," Cid pointed out. "Coverage is patchy down there. They could have the monster and just can't contact us to come meet them."

"Still, there's no reason to send reinforcements," the man replied. "They'll be able to contact us once they get the thing to Centra. That's what we decided, wasn't it? No back-up? I don't see any reason we should change the mission profile at all. Instructor Brecht is personally involved, and he should know better than that. A SeeD's job is dangerous. That's just the way the business is."

Cid didn't have anything to say to that. The board had been reluctant to agree to the mission in the first place, and he was wasting his breath trying to convince them to invest even more resources in it. A majority was never going to agree to that.

"It _would_ be a shame to lose them," someone said. "Cid's right. These three are some of our best."

"Then let's put it to a vote," the fat one replied.

"Okay," Cid agreed. "All in favor of sending reinforcements?"

He held up his own hand. Two other people did as well. But everyone else remained unmoved. There wasn't any need to count or discuss the matter any further. Motion defeated. Quistis would be getting no aid in her quest. And Brecht was going to be livid.

0 0 0

Seifer lurked behind Quistis's radiating blonde form. He wasn't sure how it was possible, but she was utterly luminescent even in the ugly, yellow tinge of the island compound's bare bulbs. It was late, so half of them were off, and she still had that fresh from the shower smell that wafted toward him as she flipped her hair over her shoulders so that it went tumbling freely down her back to hug the curves of her waist.

As she turned into Adrian's room, Seifer stayed behind.

"Hi," she said.

"Come to see your friend?" a voice replied — the doctor.

"Yeah. I couldn't sleep, so I thought I'd just come down here and sit with him for a while. You don't mind, do you?" she asked, her voice a few notes higher than usual. Seifer could practically see her chewing gum and twirling her hair, though he couldn't tell who it was she was trying to channel. Selphie or Rinoa?

"Fine with me," the doctor said.

"How's he doing?"

"Not well." The doctor's voice was dead serious. "To tell you the truth, I'm a little worried we might lose him."

Seifer knew better, and it was all he could do not to stalk into the room with Hyperion drawn and ask the bastard to repeat that lie to his face. He held the desire in check and leaned up against the wall, waiting for Quistis to make her move.

"You really think he might not make it?" she asked. "Is it the poison still?"

"No. We've got all the poison out of his system, but the fact that he hasn't woken up yet makes me think it might have permanently damaged his brain before we got to him. At this point, I don't think he's going to wake up."

Quistis made a small sound of dismay that was so unlike her Seifer almost had to laugh.

"I know you probably heard about…what happened last night," she said. "But it's not what you think. It's me and Adrian, you see. I love him." Seifer thought he heard real tears as she continued. Where had she learned to be such a theatrical actress, he wondered? "And I know I shouldn't fall in love with another SeeD. It makes situations like this complicated. Anyway…I'm sorry. I'm babbling. Do you think you could give me a minute alone with him? To say goodbye in private?"

The doctor hesitated a second. "Sure," he finally said, and Seifer heard his footsteps approaching the door.

They knew what they needed to know now. The poison was all gone, and if Adrian was going to recover, the only way he was going to do it was outside of this wretched building and off this island. As the doctor walked out the door, Seifer held out one hand and murmured, "Break."

The doctor didn't even know what hit him. He froze solid, petrified. It was a fluke that Seifer had even had the spell on him. He didn't remember where he'd gotten it from or how long he'd had it. But it was damn handy. It would be a long time before it wore off, and even when it did, the doctor would have no memory of being hit with it.

"Nice job," Quistis said as he rounded the corner, hefting the doctor's petrified body up and pushing it back into the room so that they could close the door behind them.

They didn't have a very large window of time, so they got started right away. Quistis pulled the IV out of Adrian's arm, and Seifer bent down to haul the other man out of bed. They stopped just long enough to move the doctor's frozen body onto the bed and cover it with a blanket, leaving only his hair peeking out the top, before Seifer slung Adrian across his shoulders. Adrian was easily fifty pounds heavier than the doctor, and Seifer foundered for a moment under his dead weight before finding equilibrium.

"You okay?" Quistis asked.

"Yeah. I'm good. Let's go."

The hallway was empty and quiet when they left Adrian's room. Everyone had settled in for the night. Certainly, this wasn't the most difficult place Seifer had ever been trapped in. Whoever these people were, they weren't military. And as civilians, he was hoping they'd be hesitant to shoot. If they'd really engineered the monster here, that meant that most of these people were actually scientists. Not exactly angels, but not blood thirsty or hardened either. Still, he'd rather not take the chance.

He lumbered down the hallway after Quistis and followed her, unmolested, all the way to the front door. She peeked around the corner, then whispered to him. "Two guards." They were speaking back and forth to each other in a tongue Seifer didn't recognize. But it didn't sound like they were talking business from the way one of them was laughing.

Shifting Adrian's weight on his back, he reached for his gunblade.

"I can handle it," she whispered and put a hand on his wrist.

"No. I'm good. I'll take the one on the right." He'd never fought before with so much extra weight, but he didn't think either of the men would offer up much resistance. And he didn't want to be just trailing along like a pack mule.

The man facing them, Quistis's target, saw the attack coming. He raised his gun and almost got a shot off before Quistis knocked it out of his hand with her whip. Seifer's man though was taken completely by surprise and didn't even cry out as Hyperion came into rough contact with his chest, slicing through clothing and bone. The blow was clumsy and threw Seifer off balance. He struggled to find his center again as his man crumpled to the floor, mortally wounded. It would only take him a few minutes to die, and his eyes were already rolling up in his head.

Out of the corner of his eye, Seifer saw a Quistis's whip slice the other guard across the face. He screamed, but the sound was quickly cut off as a golden cord wrapped around his throat. Quistis stood behind him like an avenging angel, her arms straining as he gurgled and sputtered. Seifer had never seen her fight this way before and watched in amazement as she gave the whip a sharp, terrible tug, snapping the man's neck with a loud pop.

_God, she's beautiful._

She grabbed a ring of keys from the man and tried them one by one in the doors until one caused the old latch to lick into place and freed the bolt holding the doors shut. The metal door swung open, allowing inky blackness and the heady scent of the jungle inside. The dark looked safe, like good cover for their escape, and with Adrian balanced precariously on his shoulder, Seifer scrambled over the dead men and into the night air.

Quistis was right behind him. She slammed the door behind her, cutting off the light from inside and leaving them with only the moon and the stars above. Shadow flooded in and surrounded them. Shafts of pale moonlight managed to penetrate the canopy at intervals, showing them isolated slices of broad fern leaves and tangled vines coiled around knobby tree trunks. It was a gauntlet of pitfalls and poisonous beasts. Quistis grabbed Seifer's hand, and together they set off through it, moving at a quick pace away from the island compound and into the night.

Even as Seifer's eyes adjusted, the jungle was dense and dark. Every shadow seemed to contain the potential for unknown horror, and his heart was racing as his senses strained to detect any sign that something was nearby, any small hint that they were being followed by either man or beast. The monster had managed to sneak up on them in broad daylight, so he knew he didn't have much hope of seeing it coming at night. He didn't like being at such a disadvantage. His instincts begged him to run faster.

"Shhh!" Quistis stopped in front of him.

"What is it?" he whispered.

Adrian was beginning to stir, and Seifer nudged him quiet.

Silence fell around, spreading thick and hoary. He strained to hear whatever had alerted Quistis.

"I think they know we're gone now," she said. "They're coming after us. This way. We've got to follow the mountains back to where we landed."

He followed her blindly, distantly wondering how she could even see the mountains to follow them. But she seemed to know where she was going. Plants crunched under Seifer's feet, and he struggled through the low bushes and trees that grabbed hungrily at his clothing and flesh.

This, he thought, must have been what the last moments of Sascha Maurden's life had been. He'd been in a frenzy, racing through the trees, trying to escape from the monster he knew was lurking in the jungle. Maurden must have worked here, maybe even helped to develop the beast that killed him. He wondered if the others had turned on him, or if they even suspected that his body had been recovered.

They emerged into a small clearing flooded with moonlight. Quistis stuck to the edges, hurrying Seifer along as fast as he could go. As they reentered the trees, a loud puff of hot air shattered the silence.

Right away, Seifer felt the massive presence of something close by, and his blood became dangerously thin, coursing fast through his body, as he fought against the instinct to throw Adrian off his back and run full-tilt. Instead, Quistis threw out a random spell. The firaga flashed and burned out quickly without a target, but it illuminated the night and allowed them the novelty of seeing the face of the devil not far behind them. A blunt snout filled with teeth was tattooed onto the back of Seifer's eyes, the image staying there long after the fire spell had died out.

They ran as fast as they could. Seifer's heart pumped fast, channeling an inhuman amount of strength to his legs. They drove relentlessly underneath him, propelling him forward with enough momentum that he knew he wouldn't be able to stop if he needed to. And he knew that if he tripped, or stepped wrong, both he and Adrian were as good as dead.

Heavy footsteps pounded behind them. The shadow cat changed gaits, switching from an easy walk to a swift and agile trot.

Desperately, they ducked and weaved between branches and trees, picking tight paths the monster would have trouble following them through. They were in dense vegetation now. Seifer stumbled a few terrifying times but somehow managed to stay upright as they plowed on.

Still, the shadow cat was getting closer. It was ruthless, a manufactured killing machine that was after them and wouldn't stop until they were dead. It was designed to defeat SeeDs — the single biggest threat Garden had faced since Ultimecia. And all they could do was run. Seifer was panting, his muscles turning liquid with the smoldering fire of exhaustion.

Then he felt something on his lower back. Heat spread quickly, bringing pain with it. Was it claw snaring flesh? Or teeth? Was it poison? He wasn't sure. But he felt for a moment like he was flying, propelled forward by the monster's breath at his back like a rocket ship, sending him soaring up to the stars which danced drunkenly about in the sky.

Quistis screamed somewhere ahead of him.

_Oh no. Quistis!_

Then he stumbled and fell.

The entire world seemed to have dropped out from underneath him, and he plunged for long moments through complete darkness.

A shock of bitter cold put the pain in his back into sudden, sharp focus. Water rushed over him, covering his head and his feet, and ushering in dead silence. With a massive effort, he kicked and propelled himself back up until his head broke through the surface.

"Seifer!" Quistis was screaming his name.

He called back, floating for a minute as struggled to lift Adrian's head up out of the water. Pain was already making him dizzy. But, for the moment at least, he was still alive.


	17. Metal Moon

Chapter 16: Metal Moon

Carson was waving his hands erratically as he spoke. "She's out there in danger, and you're telling me that we're going to sit going to sit here and just hope that she comes back alive?" All the blood had rushed to his head and he was blushing with anger.

"I'm sorry, Carson." Cid shrugged. "There's nothing we can do."

"You're fucking me. You have absolutely got to be fucking me."

Cid sighed. "Quistis is good at what she does. I'm sure she's okay. I've seen her handle herself in worse situations."

"Worse situations?" Carson planted both of his hands on Cid's desk. "How can you say that? You don't even know what the situation is!"

"Calm down," Cid said sharply.

"No! I won't calm down!" Carson roared back. "As far as I know, the love of my life is out there gasping her last breath as we speak! You can't expect me to be calm about that!"

Thoughts of Quistis had consumed him all day, and he'd come up with quite a few terrible reasons why she wasn't returning any of his messages. As the board was discussing whether or not to send in reinforcements, he'd been pacing back and forth in his room, wearing a trail in the carpet. He knew that something was wrong. He could feel it in his bones. The forensics woman agreed with him and had gone with him when he'd first met with Cid to back him up. It seemed she'd been talking to the people at Esthar International who were _very_ interested in the DNA sample she'd sent them a few weeks ago. The scientist who'd been in charge of their case then had been replaced by someone higher up the corporate food chain and the company was becoming aggressive in demanding details on where the tissue had been found.

None of that seemed to have any impact on Cid, and it certainly didn't have any on the board. Carson didn't understand how they could let this happen. Quistis was one of the best SeeDs in Garden, worth a lot more than even the lives they might have to sacrifice to save her.

"Look," Cid began, leaning back in his chair so that he could adjust his sweater which was riding up his belly, "Quistis knew the risks of this job and this mission before she left. And so do you. I worry about her, too. But my hands are tied."

"She shouldn't have gone on this mission to begin with," Carson replied.

"I won't debate that with you," Cid said. "She's there. It's done. I trust that she has all the skills she needs to get back in one piece and so should you."

Sensing that this argument was getting him nowhere, Carson sent the other man a scathing look and turned to leave the room without a parting salute. He'd wasted enough time already without stopping to be respectful to the very man screwing him over.

He walked with long, angry steps toward the elevator and pounded the button for the first floor unmercifully. To hell with Cid. He wasn't going to sit around on his ass. He _couldn't_. It was just a matter of figuring out what to do now. As the elevator dropped down, he paced back and forth, dragging his hands through his hair.

Deep his his heart, he knew that Quistis had walked into something she couldn't handle. Back in the day, with Ultimecia, she'd had Squall, Zell, Irvine, and Selphie with her. A whole team to back her up. But this time was different. He knew she needed all the help she could get.

 The elevator doors opened with a whoosh.

A short, blonde girl stepped around him as he walked out and said hello. But he ignored her, having bigger things than social pleasantries on his his mind. His hands were tightened into fists as his side as he walked with determination toward the dormitories. When he passed by the library, he looked up to see a familiar girl walking out with a stack of books in her arms. An idea blinked to life at the back of his mind. Would she go along with it, he wondered?

It was worth a shot.

"Kelly!" he called out and walked up to her.

0 0 0

Still disoriented, Quistis treaded water and tried to figure out what direction Seifer's yells were coming from. She'd been running through the trees, fleeing for her life like a frightened deer, when suddenly the ground underneath her feet had ceased to be and she fell with a scream into the ocean. It was like running off the edge of the world. Now she didn't know where she was. Everything was black, cold, and salty. And the waves pulled at her as overhead the moon and stars jumped and swayed with the motion.

"Seifer!" She called out for him again. The monster had been right behind them, so close that she'd seen it in the light from her spells and had heard its breath puffing out as it ran after them. She needed reassurance that Seifer and Adrian were still alive and she wasn't just dreaming his voice or hearing it in the chaos of water rushing over her ears. The thought struck her that she might be alone now, the last one left of her team, but it was too painful to hold on to — not because she was afraid, but because the loss was too much to bear.

Paddling a little one way, she changed her mind and paddled in another. No direction seemed any better than another.

Then, from behind her, his voice carried through the night. "Quistis!"

It was clearer this time. Real.

"Where are you?"

"Here!"

She swam in the direction of his voice until finally she spotted his blond head bobbing in the sea. Adrian's chin was resting on Seifer's shoulder, and he was struggling to stay afloat under the other man's weight. For his part, Adrian was awake and coughing but still seemed too groggy to register exactly where he was or what was going on.

"Oh my God! Seifer…" Intense relief made her voice breathy. "You're alive."

"For the moment," he replied. He was low enough in the water that it splashed into his mouth when he spoke. "Help me."

It was difficult to maneuver Adrian between them, especially now that he was waking up, but they managed to get one of his arms slung over Quistis's shoulders, shifting some of his weight onto her. Immediately, Seifer began to swim easier.

"What way is shore?" he asked. "We need to get the hell out of this water."

"This way," Quistis said and began paddling in the right direction.

They were both good swimmers. Even so, their progress through the waves was slow and painful. The water felt as thick as molasses as Quistis pushed against it with her hands and feet, struggling for every inch. The current was carrying them down the shoreline and she could make out trees moving against the sky as they swam. Finally, they grounded on a rocky outcropping. With their last vestiges of strength, Seifer and Quistis heaved Adrian up out of the sea, then pulled themselves up behind him.

Sodden and exhausted, they collapsed next to him.

Seifer cursed quietly, wincing as he reached around his body to touch his back.

"What's wrong?" Quistis asked.

"Damn thing got me in the back," he ground out.

"The monster?" She scrambled across Adrian so that she could examine the wound, though in the dark she couldn't see anything. "It didn't poison you, did it? Are you feeling okay?"

"No, I'm not feeling okay!" he barked. "It hurts like hell."

"Seifer…if you're poisoned…"

 God. She didn't want to even think it. There was no help from the islanders coming this time around. And nothing they had could counteract the poison's deadly effects, even if they could get back to their vessel in time.

"Where the fuck are we at, anyway?" Seifer asked, changing the subject. "Are we far from the ship?"

"I'm not sure," Quistis admitted. "I lost track once we started running. Was more concerned with getting away alive than where I was going."

"Well, you're the damn navigator here. Can't you figure it out?" he asked, his tone sharpened by his pain.

Not sure what else to do, Quistis looked up and attempted to find some point of reference: a star, a constellation, the position of the moon — anything. The southern sky was different than the one she was used to. Everything was off kilter and not quite where she thought it should be. She was beginning to lose patience and give into the panic threatening to grip her heart when she spotted a string of stars she recognized. They weren't oriented the way she was used to seeing them, but she followed them across the sky like a pointer until, finally, she found a lodestar.

"There," she said and pointed. "We're on the north side of the island, on the inside of the crescent. We anchored pretty close to the eastern side of the island, and there's a good current out there going in that direction. I think we could probably follow it back to our ship."

Seifer didn't say anything, but Adrian groaned.

"Seifer?" She leaned down over him and shook him, afraid he'd fallen into the same poisoned stupor Adrian had.

"Ow! Stop it!" he yelled.

Quistis put one hand on his cheek. "You've _got_ to stay with me," she said, shaking her head.

"I am. I'm with you," he insisted. His skin was still clammy and cold from the water, so she didn't feel much reassurance. For a moment, she kept her hand on his face, feeling the muscles in his jaw move and his breath across her skin. It was reassuring. Centering.

"Quistis?" The sound of Adrian's voice shocked her.

Pivoting, she reached out and put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm right here."

"Where are we?" he asked.

"We escaped," she explained. "We're outside."

He groaned. "I feel like hell. Those bastards…they kept giving me something. God. It was awful."

Quistis was surprised that he remembered anything about his ordeal, but rather than interrogate him, she asked, "Can you sit up?"

"I don't think so."

"Seifer's hurt," she replied. "I might need your help."

"I'll do what I can," he promised and reached up to pat her hand.

Even though their situation was still dire, she smiled, glad that out of every SeeD in Garden, she'd been stranded with these two. What a team. _Her_ team, she thought proudly. And damn it, she wasn't going to let them down. If they got back in the water, she felt certain that the current around the island would sweep them all the way to their ship. They wouldn't need to swim, just float, and as long as Adrian was awake enough to tread water, she was sure they could make it. Maybe the water would even wash some of the poison out of Seifer's wounds — though memories of Sascha Maurden's corpse quickly invaded to crush her optimism.

"Come on, guys," she said. "Get up. We've got to go."

"I can't walk," Adrian protested.

"You won't need to." The rock they were on was slippery when she stood up. "I'll help you. Come on." She offered him her hand and when he gripped it, she pulled him up into a sitting position. It seemed to make him dizzy but he handled his discomfort with grace, sucking it up like the soldier he was trained to be.

Seifer sat up without her help, though it was obviously causing him a lot of discomfort.

"I can heal you," Quistis offered, turning her attention to him.

"Better to let it bleed," he said, grunting as he rubbed his face with one still damp hand. "It'll flush the wound out. It's just that this salt water stings like a fucking bitch. I'm fine."

Maybe he was. Maybe it was just a flesh wound. But she wasn't completely convinced. Behind her, Adrian was getting his wits about him. He took in his surroundings, dark as they were, like a man who'd just been released from prison: running his hands across the rocks beneath him, breathing in the sea spray in massive gulps. Most importantly, he was lucid. Or getting there.

"Think you can swim?" she asked him.

"Of course I can," Seifer answered, not realizing the question hadn't been meant for him.

Charmed and sad, Quistis dropped to her knees, wrapped an arm around him, and leaned in to pressed a kiss to the side of his mouth, forgetting for a second that they had an audience.

"Ready?" she asked Adrian.

"As I'll ever be," he replied.

With one arm around both of them, Quistis slipped back into the water. At first, the two men nearly drug her under. But both found their strength and put forth a huge effort as they swam back out toward the current that would carry them home. Quistis turned around so that she could mark their movement relative to the island.

The water was cold and Seifer was struggling. He didn't make it obvious and never quit paddling, but she could tell. He was in pain, and he was exhausted. She admired how he battled through it, tough and determined, the kind of guy who'd never let his friends down.

They swam until the current finally caught them. Quistis could feel it pulling against her feet and watched as the island lurched into motion. Then the water carried them on so all they had to do was keep their heads above the waves.

They were moving quickly now, but not fast enough. Seifer was getting weaker, his movements more labored. And once he dipped beneath the water. They were losing him, and Quistis was terrified.

More than anything, she wanted to get to the ship and save his life. He'd always been a pillar of strength, a man who could survive anything and everything. Now his life was ebbing away and there was nothing she could do. This wasn't how it was all supposed to end. She kicked hard in the direction they wanted to go, hurrying their progress on.

The moon was bright in the sky above now, unobscured by clouds. Its light turned the tops of the waves into white, glistening tips and illuminated in stark contrasts the island's rocky coastline. It didn't look much different here than the place they had laid anchor. She was confident that they were getting close and murmured encouraging words to Seifer as they kicked and swam. The stars sparkled overhead as dark oblivion tugged at the soles of their feet.

Quistis thought of the way Seifer had kissed her, fierce and feral but also safe and soft and welcoming. And she thought about sleeping tucked into bed next to him those two dark nights in the compound. They were fleeting moments, but already so much more than what she'd shared with Carson, or any of her recent boyfriends. With death so close, she found she didn't want to think about any of them, or about Garden, or work, or even her friends. Rather, he thoughts overflowed with Seifer and her heart wailed at the thought of losing him.

"Quistis?" Adrian was panting, but his strength was coming back as quickly as Seifer's was waning.

"What?"

"Look at that."

He was looking toward shore, and she followed his gaze. The water was littered with bright, sparkling objects bobbing up and down with the waves.

"What is it?" she asked.

"No idea."

One bobbed close by. Quistis and Adrian kicked together out of the current and accelerated toward it. Seifer, his head lolling against Quistis, was dragged along behind them. He'd given up on swimming almost completely; his feet only kicked when he seemed to remind himself where he was and what he was supposed to be doing.

The object grew closer and closer until they got within reach and Quistis could make out what it was.

"Metal?" she breathed.

They both looked across the now familiar bit of shoreline. Bits and pieces of metal were scattered everywhere — all that remained of their ship. Quistis looked up at the moon in despair and it seemed to roll at her.

They were all going to die.


	18. Tangerine Dream

_"A snakebite's not my enemy, but it taught me how to fight."_ - Jon Bon Jovi

Chapter 17: Tangerine Dream

With no other options left to them, Quistis and Adrian supported Seifer between them and rode the current around the island until they found an inlet with a gentle shore where they could haul him out of the water. He'd passed out at some point. And in the light of morning, Quistis could see why. Sharks were swimming into the shallows after them, darting in quick circles, drawn close by the blood still flowing from Seifer's wounds. On shore, Quistis rolled him over onto his stomach and pulled back his shirt to reveal the deep, angry slashes the shadow cat had torn through his flesh.

Tears blurred her vision as she looked down at him.

It was impossible to tell whether or not he'd been poisoned, though even if he hadn't, this sort of blood loss wasn't something that Quistis could remedy with magic. Still, she put her hands to his back and tried to ignore the slick warmth of his life ebbing away as she called up the most powerful healing spell she had. With half-closed eyes, she watched as it funneled down through her arms and into him, a blue-green glow that was slowly stitching his injuries closed. She cast for as long as she could, coaxing every last bit of energy she had to keep the magic flowing, until the white hot heat of the spell began to burn her fingertips. Then it broke from her control and was gone. With a deep breath, she cleared his blood away and saw only pale lines of scar tissue crossing his back.

"Is he going to be okay?" Adrian asked.

"I don't know," Quistis admitted.

She dashed tears from her cheeks with the back of her arm and then rolled Seifer over again. He was pale in the early morning sun, and Quistis could feel his shallow breaths and the thready beat of his heat under her palms. Would it just suddenly stop when the time came, she wondered? Or would it slow down until it faded into nothing? She closed her eyes, unable to look at him as she realized that the Seifer she knew could already be gone, his mind and soul already consumed by the shadow cat's poison.

"Oh God," she murmured, her voice little more than a groan. "Don't do this to me."

She'd watched people die before, but she'd never _lost_ someone.

"Quistis…" Adrian squatted down beside her. His mouth curved into a gentle frown when she looked up at him, her eyes burning with grief. "Maybe you should tell him before it's too late," he said.

"Tell him what?"

Adrian paused, then finally replied, "Tell him why he can't leave you."

0 0 0

The sun was beginning its descent into the ocean. Tangerine splashed across the surface of the sea and sky was painted a feathery crimson. Light wispy clouds floated like breath through the air, reaching out with spidery arms toward the bubble of land that was quickly vanishing behind the Ragnarok.

Kelly pressed her face to the window.

There her life went, she thought, sinking away like a brave old battleship succumbing to the lure of the depths. It had put up an impressive fight but in the end duty had been forsaken. She had broken cardinal laws, ones with long memory that would weigh down her career for the rest of her life.

"Are you sure you've got everything we need?" Carson Brecht asked.

She peeled her gaze away from the sunrise and swiveled it about the interior of the purloined Garden craft to look at him.

"I'm sure," she replied.

He was dressed in his uniform, even his cuff links fastened tightly, despite the fact that they were acting right now in stark contradiction to their orders. They would probably both be stripped of their rank when they returned — _if _they returned. The only indication in amongst the black slacks, high laced boots, and embroidered jacket that he wasn't operating as an officially sanctioned SeeD was his slightly disheveled hair. He was standing in front of the Ragnarok's brilliantly illuminated navigation system. A small globe spun in the right hand corner of the screen while the rest of it was overwhelmed with satellite information being downloaded from the Garden database. He'd used his instructor number and password to gain access to the course logged by Quistis's ship as they left Deling City. Now they were on their way to help.

Turbulence jostled the ship and their young pilot shouted an apology over his shoulder. He was one of Brecht's students and was participating in their plot for extra credit. He wasn't a good enough pilot to actually land the Ragnarok on the island, so they had also stolen a Garden sea craft and had it in the Ragnarok's hold. The plan was to land on the far southern coast of Centra at Edea's orphanage, leave the Ragnarok and the pilot there to be retrieved, and then Kelly and Carson would continue on alone to the island.

Kelly hoped they wouldn't get the poor kid kicked out of Garden.

"We're good to go," Carson said and logged out of the navigation panel. "We'll use the exact same course as they did, so we should land in about the same place, assuming they haven't gone to another island."

"How long will it take to get there?" Kelly asked.

"Couple of days," he replied. "Our ship's about five years older than theirs, so it's not as fast."

"Great," Kelly muttered, wondering how she was going to pass a few days locked in a small boat with him.

She still wasn't entirely sure that this was a good idea.

After returning to Garden, she'd begun working with Dr. Kadowaki and the rest of Balamb Garden's medical staff on breaking down and developing an antidote to the poison she'd extracted from Sascha Maurden's body. They'd made a lot of advances by comparing the venom to those of known animals and had discovered quite a few similarities between the chemical makeup of the mysterious toxin and that employed by bite bugs. It was possible that the anti-venom Garden routinely used on cadets for bite bug stings might also be effective against the monster's poison, but it was impossible to know for sure without a fresh sample. Carson Brecht had caught Kelly on her way out of the library with a armful of books on venomous monsters, and when he explained his plan to her, the possibility that a simple dose of bite bug anti-venom might be able to save someone's life had convinced her to go with him.

The case of anti-venom they had procured was at Kelly's feet. Luckily, Dr. Kadowaki had a soft spot for Quistis Trepe.

"How long until we reach Centra?" she asked.

"Um…we should be there by morning," the pilot replied.

_Morning_ — they were going to have to fly all night. Kelly leaned back in her seat with a sigh and looked out the window again to watch as the sun dropped lower in the sky, tangerine seas swallowing it whole.

0 0 0

Seifer could feel himself falling. He cascaded down an orange waterfall as birds swooped overhead. Their wings beat against the sky, propelling them away from him as he fell. They were soaring toward salvation, he thought, up toward heaven. And he was dropping into fear and delusion.

He fell until the water flooded over him, filling his mouth with the taste of blood. His body heaved and fought until the color around him deepened and darkened. No longer orange. Now it was red.

And the birds above him began to scream.

The sensation of falling slowed, but it wasn't a relief. Instead, he could feel himself being engulfed by something thicker, more suffocating. He couldn't move now, just sink slowly and inexorably as the darkness sucked him down.

Then, a voice broke through the haze. Was it a bird? He didn't think so. It sounded more like a woman…like someone he knew.

He lashed out with one hand, pushing against the force pulling at him. This wasn't right. He wanted out.

Fly. He had to fly.

The orange glow surfaced again in the crimson ooze, licking at his skin.

Yes. Up…up…

0 0 0

It was late at night when Seifer came to. Quistis was sleeping between him and Adrian in the small lean-to they'd built from the remains of their ship and palm fronds they'd culled from the jungle's edge. She had one arm thrown over Seifer and felt him stir. At first, she thought maybe it was a dream…or worse, some creature invading their camp. But then he grumbled something and tried to sit up.

She shushed him, kissed him, and he fell asleep again until morning.

In the light of day, he was more lucid, and immediately asked what had happened. Fighting back a smile that made her cheeks ache, Quistis explained that someone had destroyed their ship and that they were now stranded on the island.

"So, what're we going to do?" he asked, getting right down to business as if he hadn't just stepped back from death's door.

"For now," Quistis replied, "we're just going to try to survive. Hopefully, the islanders think we're already dead."

Adrian was back to full strength, but Seifer would need a few days to recover, so Quistis was more concerned with food and shelter than anything else. They seemed to be safe along the coast. So far, she and Adrian had found no indication that the shadow cats regularly left the island interior. The day before, while they'd been building the lean-to, they'd seen nothing but birds, bugs, and a few lizards — nothing big enough to draw the monsters out of their usual territory. It seemed like the best place to set up camp until they could come up with a better plan.

By mid-afternoon, Seifer was feeling well enough to bathe off some of the sweat and blood in the shallows. That night, they lit a small fire and crowded around it.

"We didn't think you were going to make it for a while there," Adrian said, smiling across the flames at Seifer.

"Same to you," Seifer replied. "I don't really know what happened or how the thing even got me. But I guess it was just a glancing blow. It didn't even poison me."

"You're damn lucky, but I don't think I'd call what you got a _glancing blow_," Adrian said. "You just about bled out. Quistis saved your life with some sort of spell I'd never even seen before."

Quistis didn't meet Seifer's eyes when he glanced at her. He knew just as well as she did the circumstances that allowed her to draw upon her blue magic. And the fact that she'd been able to do so on his behalf, without being injured herself, indicated a level of intense attachment that she wasn't ready to either admit to or discuss. It remained unspoken between them as they finished their dinner and went to bed, all of them curling up together in the lean-to against the chill of the night.

The next morning, Seifer was the first one up and his appetite had returned with a vengeance. With abject concern, Adrian watched him eat two fish and three granola bars, washing it all down with a bottle of water. They were already almost through all of the supplies that had been in their packs. It was obvious they were going to need more now that Seifer was getting better. Quistis was wading in the shallows, trying to catch another fish, when Adrian yelled to her from the shore that he was going to head back down the coast to where their ship had been anchored and comb the debris for supplies.

"Hold on a second and I'll come along and help you," she called back.

"It's all right. You stay here. I'll be back this afternoon." He waved, slung his backpack over his shoulders, and left.

For a few more minutes, Quistis stood in the water, waiting, until a fish darted past her thigh. "Stop!" she commanded and it sank in the water like a stone. She scooped it up, killed it, and climbed up the embankment to the camp where Seifer was sitting in the shade of their lean-to.

"I can help out, you know," he said as she sat down and started to clean the fish, tossing its guts into a hole she'd dug near the base of a tree.

"Yeah. But I'd rather you rested," she replied and smiled at him.

"I'm not an invalid," he grumbled.

"I never said you were."

She finished with the fish, strung it on a line, and walked back down to the water to wash her hands before flopping down next to Seifer. She laid back and stretched out, groaning and wiggling her toes where they stuck out into the sun.

Seifer turned around to look at her. "You do realize that we'll probably never get off this island, don't you?" he asked, his handsome face contorting into a scowl. "By now, Garden has probably written us off for dead. So no one is coming to save us."

Quistis sat up. "Yes. I know that."

"Then…why the hell are you so upbeat?"

She almost laughed, surprised that he even had to ask. "Because we're alive," she replied. "Because _you're_ alive."

He was right, of course. It didn't make sense to feel happy in face of the odds that were still stacked against them. But after she'd come so close to losing both of her teammates, it was difficult to feel anything but grateful and relieved. She was glad not to be stuck on this island alone. And it didn't seem like an insurmountable task to complete the mission and get home alive with Seifer at her side.

The day was already growing hot, but it was pleasant in their lean-to with the birds singing overhead and cool sea breeze blowing through. Ignoring the way Seifer was looking at her, she laid back down, stretching her arms out above her, and let the morning wash over her.

"You're not worried?" Seifer persisted, leaning down and propping himself up on his elbow beside her.

"Not right now."

"Not even that you might never see Squall, or Brecht, or any of your friends ever again?" he pressed.

Surprised at how little that mattered to her at the moment, she shook her head.

Seifer grinned and leaned in close. "So what you're saying is—"

"What I'm saying," Quistis interrupted, "is that at the moment I'm only concerned with what's happening right here, right now."

For a long moment, he looked down at her, his green eyes curious and his fingers playing in the ends of her hair. Quistis was about to ask him what he was thinking when he leaned down and kissed her. He lingered for a moment once the kiss was through and she closed her eyes before reaching up to pull his head back down for another.

Seifer didn't need convincing. He cradled her head in one hand and worked his mouth slowly over hers, drawing her deeper and warming her blood with the gentle coaxing of his lips and teeth. _Hyne_, he was a good kisser. She'd never really appreciated what a man could do with his mouth before, but he had her stomach trembling in anticipation and her toes curling against the warm rock underneath them.

He broke away, then trailed kisses down the side of her neck and across her collar bone, biting and sucking.

"Where's Adrian?" he asked.

"Gone to look for supplies," she replied, her voice airy with gasps.

"How long will he be gone?"

"Said he'd be back this afternoon," she reassured him and, to let him know exactly where she hoped this was going, she slipped her hands under his shirt and pulled him back down on top of her.

He groaned a little — a sound that made Quistis melt. She might have groaned too it if he hadn't kissed her again, more forcefully this time. It didn't take long until he was kissing her just like he had back in the compound with his whole body behind it. The friction as he moved against her, his taste flooding her, drove Quistis crazy. She pulled his shirt up until it bunched around his shoulders, then tugged until he propped himself up long enough to take it off and toss it aside. His back was warm and broad under her hands, flawless except for the thin scars that had been left after she healed him. She traced them with her fingertips.

Seifer's own hand traveled down her side, down her thigh, and back up.

"I don't want to stop," she said when he sat up.

"We won't," he promised, then pulled her up into his arms again. Quistis shuddered when he hooked his fingers under her tank top and yanked it off. She strained to get closer to him and pressed hot kisses along his shoulder while he reached behind her and popped the clasp on her bra, letting it fall loose about her shoulders. Quistis shrugged out of it and smiled when Seifer sucked in a breath. For a few heart pounding moments, he licked and kissed and touched before clutching her tightly to his chest and lying back with her so that she was on top this time.

Quistis's loose hair fell around them as she ravaged him with a hungry kiss. He responded by holding her locked tight against him with one arm as the other hand traveled down, cupped her behind, and levered her hips against his own. Quistis knew she made some sort of sound but had a hard time hearing it past the roar of primal lust that fired through her. She'd never been this hot for a man in her entire life. She strained against him, her feet pushed against the rock beneath them, and she tried in vain to get her hands between them so that she could unfasten his pants.

"So over-eager," he chided with a chuckle.

She bit his lip until he gave in. They rolled to one side together as she fumbled with his button and fly, and he kicked out of them, hitting his knee hard against the ground in the process and not even caring. Quistis could hardly contain herself. She wanted him now, _needed_ to be surrounded by him and filled with him and to lose herself in his arms. She'd never known that she could feel this way, beyond sense. Her heart was laid bare, ready for him to reach out and take it, as she sat back so that he could pull off her shorts.

They were around her ankles and she was kicking out of them when he rolled on top of her again.

"Seifer," she said, wrapping her arms around him. "I've never felt like this before. I think I—"

She stopped mid-sentence and Seifer froze on top of her when a shout reached them through the trees. Seifer growled, his grip tightening reflexively. "You've got to be _kidding_ me," he grumbled.

The shouts got closer. It was Adrian, and he was yelling at the top of his lungs. They hadn't yet moved off of one another, still too dazed to react, until they could make out what it was he was shouting.

"A ship from Garden is here!"

Frantic, they broke away from one another and started getting dressed.

"It's Carson Brecht!" Adrian shouted, and they heard his footsteps pound into camp. "He came to save us!"

Quistis cursed quietly as she pulled her shirt on over her head. Of all the damn moments for Carson to man-up and play the part of the white knight riding to his lady's rescue, it just hadto be _now_.

"I'm going to kill that bastard," Seifer said as he left the lean-to, his hair mussed and his pants still unbuttoned. "I swear to God, I'm going to kill him."


	19. Treading Water

Chapter 18: Treading Water

Quistis scrambled from the lean-to in time to see Seifer walk up to Adrian who was standing near the water, watching as a Garden ship came in to shore. The sun glinted off the sides of the vessel, casting a halo about the whole ship in the late morning humidity.

"What the hell is going on?" Seifer asked as he zipped up his pants.

"Sorry, man," Adrian replied. "Brecht followed the course we logged when we left Galbadia. They were combing through the debris from our ship when I got there."

"Garden actually sent someone after us?" Quistis asked, surprised.

Adrian shook his head but didn't have time to explain further before Carson's head popped out the top of the vessel like a jack-in-the-box. He waved his arms and began yelling at the top of his lungs, setting birds to flight at the edge of the jungle. "Quistis! Oh my God! Is that you? Are you all right?"

"Holy Hyne," Adrian said under his breath and shook his head. "He's gotta stop yelling like that before he draws the damn monster right to us."

Anger simmered in the cauldron of Quistis's stomach as she stared across the water at Carson. It wasn't just that he had interrupted something between her and Seifer, or the flash of guilt she felt when she thought about how unfaithful she'd been, or that he was giving away their position. Rather, what bothered her the most was the likely reason he'd decided to come after her in the first place: he didn't think she could handle the mission on her own. The fact that he'd caught them in a moment of genuine desperation would only validate what he already thought about her.

"I'm fine!" she called back, her whole body stiff with ire.

"Okay! Hold on! We'll see how close we can get." Carson vanished again and the ship carefully edged forward into the shallow water, searching for the point at which its belly would begin to scrape the bottom.

Adrian turned to Seifer and Quistis. "I delayed them as long as I could. I mean, I figured that you guys were probably…"

"It's okay," Seifer replied, though it was clear from his expression that it wasn't.

"Yeah. It's okay," Quistis echoed. "This is good, after all. Just the sort of break we needed." Though she knew that was true, she didn't feel any relief yet. Maybe in a few hours when she settled down…

The vessel hit bottom, throttled down, and a hatch opened on the side allowing Carson to scramble out into the water. It was armpit deep and he splashed through it toward shore like a man possessed.

"Quistis!" He jogged up to her, his arms thrown open for a hug. "I was so worried! When we found that wreckage…_Hyne_. I thought you were—"

She evaded his embrace. "What are you doing here?" she demanded instead, interrupting him. He dropped his hands and looked like he'd been slapped.

"What? I…I came to help you."

"Why?"

"Because I love you."

"Oh no. _No_. Don't give me that. Tell me the truth. Is it that you didn't think I could handle the mission?" She crossed her arms and glared at him.

"Well…" He was tongue tied for a moment. "I just thought that…"

"You thought I'd just fall into your arms if you came down here and saved me?" she shouted, making his usually lifeless eyes flash. "You should know me better than that, Carson. I'm not some pathetic little princess, no matter how much you want me to be."

"What in the world are you talking about? Look around, Quistis. You're stranded here. Your ship was destroyed. And you want me to apologize for _saving_ you?"

"No! I want you to apologize for never believing in me!" she yelled and shoved him.

He shook his head, his mouth gaping wide. Everyone was watching them and she couldn't help but feel a flash of guilt for taking out her frustration on him so publicly. It wasn't entirely his fault, and to his credit, he had managed to show up right when they needed him. A few days more and there might not have been much of a team to save. But the mission had left her emotionally raw and everything she'd left unsaid in their relationship was rushing out. Now there was no way to take it back. So she stood firm, saying nothing more, and waited for him to respond.

He didn't. He just turned away from her.

She could tell he was hurt.

With a sigh, Quistis turned to the others and was surprised to see Kelly standing beside Seifer, her eyes wide and a black case dangling from her hand. What in the name of Hyne was she doing here?

"We…um…brought supplies," she said and smiled. "I've been working with Dr. Kadowaki, and we found something that might work against the monster's poison. So I brought some anti-venom just in case anyone was hurt."

Caught off-guard, Quistis didn't know what else to say besides, "Thanks."

"Have you seen it yet?" Kelly asked.

"More than one," Seifer replied. "Up close and personal. The damn things are almost completely immune to magic, which includes magic-based attacks by guardian forces. They're engineering them here on the island."

Kelly frowned. "Who is _they_?"

"We don't know yet," Quistis said. "We're pretty sure that they're the same radical group Sascha Maurden was involved with in Galbadia. But they're definitely not Galbadians. And not Estharans either."

"Who else would have that kind of technology?" Kelly said and shook her head.

"Exactly what we've been wondering," Adrian replied.

Seifer crossed his arms and changed the subject. "How'd you guys convince Cid to let you come down here anyway? I thought we were on our own."

"Oh…" Kelly exchanged glances with Carson. "We tried, but we didn't exactly _convince_ him."

"So what did you do?" Quistis asked.

"We sort of…stole the Ragnarok," Kelly explained and bit her lip. "And this ship. And we had one of Carson's students fly us down to Edea's orphanage in Centra. We left him there though, so he should already be back to Garden by now."

"You _stole_ the Ragnarok?" Quistis swung around to face Carson. "They'll fire you! They could kick the both of you out of Garden completely. Hyne, Carson. They could press charges against you for this kind of thing."

Still sulking, he just shrugged and didn't say anything.

He'd put a lot on the line to come and rescue her, Quistis realized. His career. His freedom. Even the lives of others. That wasn't like him. It hit her forcefully that his dedication to her far outweighed how she felt about him.

"How long have you guys been scraping by here on the shore?" Kelly asked, looking around at their lean-to and the remains of the fire.

"A few days," Adrian replied.

"Well, we've got plenty of food and fresh clothes on the ship. You guys should eat something, get cleaned up, and get some rest."

"That sounds wonderful," Adrian said and started toward the water, needing no more of an invitation. Kelly followed him, and Carson lagged behind to help Seifer and Quistis gather what personal belongings they had in their camp: weapons and a few scraps of clothing. Seifer's trench coat was ruined, torn and bloody, but he draped it across his arm anyway.

Before they left, they covered the fire over with dirt, buried the remains of the fish Quistis had been cleaning earlier that morning, and tore down the lean-to. Quistis was a little sad to see it go. Despite the circumstances surrounding it, there as many good memories in this place as bad. Living on the fringes had been simple and elegant, without complications. It seemed preferable to where she was now, wading through the ocean between her boyfriend and…Seifer — not quite a lover, much more than a friend.

Quistis heaved herself up into the ship and found Adrian already settled in. His shirt was off and Kelly was tending to the still raw wounds on his chest with a puffy wad of cotton and a bottle of potion. He winced as she dabbed and swabbed.

"I think you should take the anti-venom," she was saying. "Just in case."

"In case what? It comes back? The poison is completely out of my system. Trust me — if it any of it was still there, I'd be dead."

Kelly shrugged. "Better safe than sorry. And anyway, it'd make me feel useful."

Adrian smiled down at her, the potion already acting to bind his skin back together. "Right now, I'm damn happy to have you here. Hell of a lot nicer having your healing hands on me than Brecht's." He stopped, shame faced, when Carson came up out of the water and into the boat behind Quistis.

It wasn't fair, she thought, for everyone to be so hard on him, including herself. He wasn't a bad guy. He deserved better.

And he ought to have a girlfriend who loved him back, Quistis thought. But now wasn't the time to have that discussion with him.

"How are you, Seifer?" Kelly asked, turning away from Adrian. "He said you were injured, too."

"I was. But Quistis healed me," he replied.

Carson flopped down in front of the ship's control panel and closed the door, then started up the engines and began backing them out of the shallow water.

"There's clothes up there," Kelly said, pointing to one of the cabinets. "And the facilities are back that way. You'll have to take turns. But go ahead and clean up, get changed. I'll find you something to eat."

Adrian and Seifer let Quistis go first. She fished around amongst the clothing until she found something that would fit, a pair of navy blue Balamb Garden sweat pants and a gray t-shirt, and walked into the ship's bathroom, drawing the curtain behind her. There wasn't much to work with, but the water was warm and clean and she was able to sponge off most of the accumulated grime as well as wash her hair in the oversized sink. She felt fresh and tired as she pulled on the clean, dry clothing and wrung out her hair.

"It's not exactly a hot meal," Kelly admitted as she handed Quistis a sandwich and a bottle of water.

"That's okay," Quistis replied. "It looks delicious."

And it was, even though it was just peanut butter and jelly. Her stomach rumbled as she ate, relishing the sweet filling, the soft bread, and the chilled water that washed it all down. For dessert, she ate an apple down to the core.

"Where are we going?" she asked when she felt the engines kick in at full throttle.

"Home," Carson replied.

"What? You mean, back to Garden?"

"Yeah. Of course."

"We can't leave yet," she replied and got up to sit down next to him in the co-pilot's chair.

"Why not? This monster is obviously too dangerous for us to take on alone. Your supplies are tapped out, and Kelly isn't field trained. We're best off at this point to head back to Garden, debrief, and then let them send out a fresh team. It's not like the island is going anywhere."

"No. But the people here might," she pointed out. "They knew we were from Garden, and that meant something to them. If they have any reason to think that we escaped, they're not going to stay put and wait for someone else to come find them."

"What is it that you think they're going to do?" Carson asked. "Crate up all the monsters and disappear?"

"They don't need to take the monsters with them. They created the things; they can just make more wherever they go."

Carson shook his head. "That still doesn't change the fact that you are completely out of magic and supplies, that Adrian and Seifer are both recovering from injuries…"

"We could have the jump on them right now," Quistis said. "They don't know that we're alive. And they don't know that you're here yet. We could storm their compound…it has almost no defenses at all. And these people aren't military. They'll go down easy once we're inside. All we have to do is get past the monsters and we can shut this whole operation down."

He didn't look convinced.

"Carson," she said, reaching out to touch his arm. "It's not just the monster that's the problem. They have all the information anyone would need to make one in their compound on that island. They could sell it to the highest bidder if they wanted to. And these things are specially suited to take on SeeDs. One of them, a juvenile, almost killed all three of us. And we're some of the best SeeDs in the world. We've got to try to handle this now before it gets out of control. Success here…it could convince Garden not to kick you out."

That hit a chord.

"I'm not worried about my job," he said after a minute. "I knew before I took the Ragnarok what it would mean for my career."

Quistis frowned. "You love your job."

"Yeah…well, I love you more."

She didn't have anything to say to that. So she looked away from him to the ship's navigational screen. The familiar, crescent-shaped outline of the island was there.

"I won't go back to Garden," she finally said. "I want to finish my mission here."

Carson sighed and reached forward to slow the ship down.

"Okay. Fine. We'll give it a shot," he replied. "But I we're not going to take a ton of unnecessary risks. You three aren't fully equipped for this. If we run into too much trouble, we're going to cut and run. At least then we'll be alive to get word back to Garden. Agreed?"

Quistis nodded. "That's reasonable."

He forked a hand through his hair and stopped the ship completely.

"You should get some sleep," he said. "Kelly and I will get together all the supplies we can, and once you're all rested up, we'll head back to the island."

"Thanks," Quistis replied, then reached out and put one hand on his arm. "And…I want to say that I…"

He glanced at her, some of the frost in his demeanor melting. "You what?"

"I shouldn't have yelled at you like that in front of everyone," she whispered. "I'm sorry. It's been a hard couple of days."

He smiled and reached down to grip her hand. Quistis fought not to pull away. "I know, babe," he said, the endearment sounding awkward. "It's okay. I forgive you."

Extracting her hand from his grip, Quistis got up and noticed Seifer watching her from where he was sitting eating his sandwich. He frowned and looked away as she walked up to him, a deep crease forming where his scar crossed the bridge of his nose. Adrian and Kelly were making small talk which he hadn't cared to join in. And as she excused herself to get some sleep, so did he. The bunks at the back of the ship were separated from the rest of it by a blue curtain. He pulled it shut behind him.

"Hey," she whispered when he sat down on the lowest bunk.

"What?" he mouthed back.

She sat down beside him, hoping that Adrian would give them at least a few moments alone.

"What's wrong?" she asked.

"Nothing," he insisted.

She pressed her lips together, not sure what to say when they had so little time. "I'm sorry we didn't get to finish what we started," she finally settled on.

"Are you?" he asked, arching one eyebrow.

Confused, she nodded but didn't get to say anything more before they heard Adrian yawn loudly from beyond the curtain. Quistis pressed a quick kiss to Seifer's cheek, not liking the way he turned away from her when she did it, and scrambled up into the top bunk. She didn't bother to pull the covers back or get under them. She just huddled up with her back to the door and closed her eyes.

This was a mess, she realized. Not just the mission, but her personal life, too. She knew now that it was never going to work between her and Carson. She didn't love him and never would. But were things already beginning to disintegrate between her and Seifer as well? She'd been worried that their relationship might not last beyond the odd bubble of space and time the island seemed to exist in. Having Carson around was awkward. But that shouldn't have stopped him from kissing her in private, should it?

She wished they could talk.

But for now, it was going to have to wait.


	20. Infiltration

Chapter 19: Infiltration

The small vessel crept through the water like a prehistoric, predatory fish. Night was beginning to deepen and to the west the last golden vestiges of sun were being smothered out of existence. Seifer took a deep breath and watched the island slowly approach on the navigation screen monitor. He'd slept fitfully but felt rested and ready to fight.

Adrian was standing next to him, his wide shoulders touching Seifer's own. And next to him was Kelly, her pale face radiant in the light from the panel. They'd turned off all of their on-board lights and were approaching in the dark to avoid any chance of being seen. While they'd been sleeping, Kelly had been sweeping the island with radar and what she could get from their satellite link-up and had found what she thought was a good place to land. For the first time, Seifer felt like they had the advantage. They knew now what they were going into, who they were after, and what the objective was. His blood was pumping hard.

Quistis was standing next to Brecht, her stance stiff and her blond hair unbound. It spilled over Brecht's hand as he reached up and rubbed her back. Seifer had heard her apologize and Brecht apparently took that to mean their relationship was safe and sound. Personally, Seifer thought she'd been right-on in everything she'd said and didn't think she needed to take any of it back.

Her demeanor puzzled him and left a weight in his stomach. They'd had something for a minute there on the island. He couldn't believe it could already be over. But it seemed clear that back in reality, back at Garden, Quistis wanted to be with Brecht — the safe, stable option. Otherwise she would have broken it off with him already.

It hurt. And it made him angry. How could she choose that bastard over him? God damn. It was hard on his self-esteem.

Especially now that, despite the fact that Quistis was still in charge of the mission, Carson had taken it upon himself to command.

"Kelly," he said, "I want you to stay on board to act as central command since you're not trained for the field. We'll all take communicators and keep in touch with you." He tapped a small band around his wrist. Seifer had a similar one: radio communicators set to a high band frequency only Balamb Garden used.

"Right." She nodded.

"We don't know if they have any vessels," Carson continued. "But since they've been coming and going from this island for years, we should assume they have at least a few boats. Keep an eye on the radar and evade them if you can. But if you need to shoot them out of the water, do it."

Quistis was chewing her thumbnail, her hand obscuring her expression.

"The rest of us will make a direct attack on the compound. It's probably best that we try to avoid the monster."

"The shadow cat," Quistis provided.

"What?"

"That's what its called," she said.

"Right. So, we'll destroy the lab and take down anyone who gets in our way. Any questions?"

"If we destroy the lab, we might lose information on how to deal with the shadow cats," Adrian pointed out. "They have a cure for the poison and probably some way of managing the things seeing as they've been living alongside them."

"That's a risk we have to take," Carson replied. "Once all the information on how to create one is destroyed, we can just leave the existing ones here on the island. I think it's safe to say no one's going to be able to get them back to the mainland."

Seifer crossed his arms. He wished Quistis would speak up and quit letting Carson treat her like a frail little flower who couldn't take care of herself. She'd come close to really standing up for herself earlier and then she'd apologized for it. How could she let Brecht ignore the things that made her who she was? She was a SeeD, a brilliant mercenary. She wasn't an average woman.

"Kelly, let me know when you change position in case we need to be picked up in a hurry," Carson said.

"I will," she promised.

"All right. Is everyone ready?"

Seifer looked back and forth from Adrian to Quistis. They nodded.

"We'll be working in teams," Brecht reminded them. "Seifer and Adrian, then myself and Quistis."

It wasn't necessary to remind them again. Seifer didn't like taking orders from anyone, let alone assholes like Brecht, and he was itching to split his knuckles on the man's big fat head. With a monumental effort, he restrained himself, grumbling under his breath to Adrian that the almighty instructor now leading them probably hadn't been in the field since he'd taken his SeeD exam.

The ship slowed to a crawl, eventually coming to a stop near where they thought the compound was located. As far as they could tell, the place was very near the cliff they'd fallen off in their escape, so they'd chosen a shallower area further up the coast.

"Let's go, then," Brecht said and grabbed Quistis's hand before he opened the door. He pulled her out with him into the water. It wasn't deep, coming up to Quistis's breasts, and Seifer could tell that Brecht was still dragging her along by the way she followed close behind him.

"Suppose he's going to hold her hand the whole way?" Adrian asked quietly as they too slid out into the sea.

"Probably," Seifer grumbled darkly. "Why the fuck is she putting up with this?"

Adrian shrugged. "He did risk a lot coming after her."

Seifer didn't need or want to reminded that Carson Brecht had saved them from certain death.

Kelly closed the hatch behind them and the craft bobbed silent and dark in the water as they waded away from it and to shore. Seifer was getting damn tired of being wet when they finally stepped up onto dry land. He wrung some of the water from his shirt and shook some from his boots. They were going to be completely ruined by the time this mission was over. They'd make good company for his trench coat, he thought.

The trees were quiet. Checking a compass, Quistis started off into the dark interior of the island and Brecht let her lead the way.

Seifer suppressed a shudder as he stepped back into the forest. He drew some confidence from the thought that he'd already survived the worst this island could throw at him and he drew from that as they slid stealthily between the trees and undergrowth. Carson was in front of him and Adrian was at his back. Their steps were the only sound Seifer could pick up in the night air. It there was a shadow cat nearby, it was lying still. He willed it to snatch Brecht and be contented.

Hyperion was heavy and reassuring at his side. Hell, he thought. He'd killed one shadow cat; he could kill another.

"Hold on," Quistis whispered after a while and held one hand up to stop them. "This is it."

Seifer was surprised. They hadn't been walking long. Their flight, which had seemed to last for hours, hadn't really been very long at all.

_No wonder we got away_.

Quistis crouched down in the brush, Carson beside her. Purposefully, Seifer got down right behind her and loomed close to peer over her shoulder. As much as he liked Adrian, he intended to switch partners — if for no other reason than to irritate Brecht. They watched for several silent minutes until the door to the compound opened, revealing the white symbol on the front of the building with a flash of light from inside. Quistis leaned further back into the shadow of the underbrush, pressing her back against Seifer's chest, her bottom against his thighs.

Seifer's stomach muscles tightened.

One man walked out of the building. Seifer recognized him immediately: Abra. The little man closed the door behind him and was then lost in the darkness as their eyes adjusted. Breathing slowly, no one moved or spoke until they were certain he was gone.

"As soon as we're in, they're going to know," Quistis whispered.

That didn't bother Seifer. The men and women inside didn't pose much of a threat. It was a lot more dangerous being outside the compound.

"There's only one way in we know of. So we'll just have to storm it and hope for the best," Carson replied.

Adrian tightened the gloves around his fists, the leather creaking softly. Seifer too reached down and checked his weapon. Carson Brecht used twin short swords, neither as powerful or intimidating as Hyperion. Seifer grinned to himself. Brecht could never compare to him there.

"Make sure your communicators are on," he instructed, then informed Kelly through his own that they were going in.

Seifer took a deep breath and waited until the compound's doors swung open again. The two men preparing to leave screamed as the four SeeDs came rushing out of the darkness. Adrian knocked one to the ground with a powerful blow while Seifer cut the other down with a swift stroke from Hyperion. Brecht and Quistis took on the two guards standing inside, replacements for the two that had been killed when they escaped.

In the shuffle, Seifer saw Quistis leap over her prone guard and sprint down a hallway. He moved to follow her. She seemed to know exactly where she was going, so he ran hard to keep up, his feet pounding against the cement floor. They were both short of breath by the time she stopped in front of a pair of double doors, far separated from the rest of the team. She turned around, and when she saw him, her blue eyes went wide.

"Seifer? I thought you were Carson. You were supposed to stay with Adrian."

He shrugged and she regarded him curiously for a moment before looking away.

"Think you can get us in here?" she asked, gesturing to the locked door.

"You better believe it," he replied, grinning. He raised his gunblade above his head and brought it down against the latch. The sound of his weapon triggering echoed down the long hallway behind them and the door knobs broke, tearing part of the locking mechanism off with them. He motioned Quistis to step back, then gave the doors several swift kicks until the rest of the lock gave way.

They walked into a room filled with jars. It was the one Quistis had told him about, he realized. Glass cases lined the walls, illuminated with dim orange lights that made the jars and the creatures they contained look vile and infected.

"Seifer!" His communication badge burst to life with Carson's angry voice. "You were supposed to stay with Adrian!"

He turned the sound down on the device and ignored the message. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Quistis do the same. She was walking down the row of cases, apparently looking for something in particular, so he turned his attention to the desks in the middle of the room. With a shrug, he cast a fire spell at the nearest computer, melting its plastic casing and destroying the hard drive, then iced the smoldering remains over. Then he moved onto the next one, and the next.

"What are you looking for?" he finally asked Quistis. She was standing now in front of a completely empty case, her arms crossed.

"The shadow cat specimens," she replied. "They were right here the first time. They must have moved them."

"What for?" Seifer asked. "Were there a lot of them?"

"Dozens."

Seifer thought for a moment, then said, "I guess it doesn't really matter. The computers and the files are the important bits, right? Not much anyone's going to be able to do with the specimens."

"Someone like Dr. Odine would be able to clone one," she pointed out.

"If he got past the shadow cats in the jungle first. I'm sure they're here somewhere. Maybe this is a different room than the one you were in the first time. Hard to tell — they all the same."

"Maybe," she conceded. "I guess we'll have to sweep the whole building."

They destroyed the last of the computers and lit up several thick sheafs of paper files before walking out into the hallway again. Seifer watched Quistis walking in front of him under the dim lights. She was wearing the skirt from her SeeD uniform, though it was still dirty from their initial trek through the jungle, and it pulled tight against her bottom as she stepped. A tantalizing expanse of thigh and knee showed between the edge her of the skirt and the top of her boots. Looking at her, he remembered lying in the lean-to that morning and running his hand down her leg and gripping her to him. And he remembered the eager sounds she made, the way her lips felt pressed against his own.

Flushed with sudden lust, he had a hard time paying attention to what she was saying as they stopped at another room. They used to same routine to get inside and to destroy all the computers inside. It was satisfying to smash and pummel and burn and distanced his thoughts somewhat from other things he'd rather be doing.

Then they moved onto the next room, and the next.

As they moved methodically down the hallway, two men finally appeared and came rushing at them, guns drawn and bullets flying. One zinged past Seifer's head as he ducked out of the way. Quistis snapped her whip back behind her and threw out her left hand to cast. Knowing how powerful her spells were, Seifer got close behind her and waited in the safe bubble of her personal space for the hail of rock and fire to abate. When the spell finally cleared, both men were lying prone on the floor.

"Effective," he said, surveying the damage, "but not as satisfying as doing it with your hands."

"You're just jealous because you have the magical ability of a geezard," she replied and smiled up at him.

He laughed, and they walked around the two unconscious men and into the next room. It was filled with filing cabinets, which they emptied and burned. Quistis stayed behind, her hand poised over the smoking pile of papers and ready to put out the fire with a water spell, while Seifer moved on, hoping to find something more worthwhile. He was hoping, too that he might find some people. So far the place seemed to be half abandoned. The thought gave him pause.

It was possible that the islanders had more than one building, maybe even another location more fortified than this one, and that they'd moved everything there. It would be a lot more difficult to complete an operation like this without the element of surprise on their side. And he didn't want Quistis to have to go back to Garden for a support team. He really didn't want Brecht to be right about this mission.

Turning down a new hallway, he burst into a new room and recognized it immediately. The bed, the blankets, the lone mirror on the wall. Everything looked the same as it had the night they left.

"Oh…wow," Quistis said as she came in behind him. "Is this our room?"

_Our._

"Or one just like it," he replied.

She walked over to the bed and picked up the ratty green blanket that was lying across it. The material slipped through her fingers to spill back onto the mattress and she laughed softly as it fell. They had slept under that blanket together, Seifer thought. They'd been naked on top of it. He shivered and tried to push his thoughts in another direction. Quistis hadn't broken it off with Brecht yet — might never. And it wouldn't do him any good to dwell on what could have been.

"It's strange being here again, isn't it?" she asked.

"It's only been a few days," he reminded her.

"Yeah. I know. But it seems longer than that. So much has changed since then."

He wasn't sure what she meant, what had changed, but she was standing close to him now and the familiar room felt insulated from the battle they were fighting. If this was really the only place he would ever get to experience the sparks between them, he thought, then he should kiss her now…for old time's sake. To hell with her boyfriend. He felt miles away and this was their space, a place where he couldn't intrude.

Quistis must have been thinking something similar, because a moment later she popped up on her toes and kissed him. At first, Seifer didn't know how to react. He hadn't expected her to make the first move and didn't know what her intentions were. Just a peck? Or something more? But as he tentatively kissed her back, they quickly remembered the morning in the lean-to and picked up where they had left off.

With a sigh, Quistis melted into him and tangled her hands in his hair. Whatever they had was still there. It sparked to life and raced like a wildfire through Seifer's stomach and up to his heart. He drank her in, needing her to quench the flames. And her mouth returned the gesture, becoming greedy too. She was a demanding kisser…the sort of woman who left a man standing dazed and dumb by the time she was done.

He wanted to talk to her and try to convince her that this was so much better than anything she could find with Brecht. But he didn't want to stop kissing her long enough to say what was on his mind. Words could come later. Right now, her body was sweet and pliable. And in this moment, in this place, she was his.

Down the inward curve of her back, over the swell of her bottom, and back up again his hands wandered, pressing her closer, tighter.

He was ready to throw her down on the bed or just press her up against the wall, mission be damned, when she gradually began to slow them down.

"I'm sorry," she said softly, her forehead and nose pressed against his, her arms around him. "I know now's not the time, but I've been wanting to do that."

Had she? Seifer smirked, wondering if there maybe wasn't a chance for them after all.

"We'd better get back on task," she continued and reached down to turn the volume back up on her communicator. Immediately, Brecht's voice burst from it, making them both frown.

"Quistis! Respond, damn it!"

"I'm here," she said, raising the communicator to her mouth.

"You need to get back to the front of the compound _now_," he said. "And bring Seifer with you if he's there."

She looked up at him but there was no flash of shame in her expression.

"We're on our way," she replied. "What's going on?"

"I just heard from Kelly. It looks like the islanders are getting ready to leave."


	21. Chaos Reigns

Chapter 20: Chaos Reigns

Abra looked out over the dark sea. The moon was already high in the sky, making the tips of the waves glassy and white. They splashed up against the side of the ship, sending a spray of glitter across the metallic hull of the craft. Their insignia had been stenciled on the side, and over the years, without any new coating of paint, it had begun to fleck off and lose its consistency. One of his hands strayed to his arm where the same symbol was tattooed onto his skin.

He was one of the few whose blood remained in this project. Time had worn their little group down, but it hadn't made them forget. Nothing could ever make them forget. His purpose was burned into his brain like his own name, as permanent as the tattoo.

He would never let the same thing happen to his children, or their children, than had happened to his grandparents. All the generations down from him were going to be protected now. And they could finally reclaim their homeland and rebuild.

A woman hurried past him with a stack of papers in her arms. Her honey brown hair flashed in the moonlight, betraying her heritage. It bothered him how many people were of mixed blood now. It was something they'd have to fix at some point. But nations couldn't be built out of a handful of people. Some mixing was going to be necessary — he had to keep reminding himself of that. Plus, he wasn't in charge, so things weren't bound to be going exactly as he would have liked.

The ship bobbed impatiently under his feet, ready to leave.

More than anything, the SeeDs bothered him. Had he been allowed to take care of them in the first place, when he'd found them alone and injured in the jungle, they wouldn't be in the position they were in now. He understood that they needed to keep a low profile, that SeeDs going missing on their island wasn't the sort of publicity their project could withstand (not yet, anyway). But now they didn't know whether the three were alive or dead and couldn't be certain enough of their security to stay where they were and finish up their research.

He thought he knew why the SeeDs had come. Sascha Maurden.

Abra had been the one to recruit Maurden in the first place. The boy had a look about him, the sort of face that made Abra think they might share blood somewhere a few generations back. He'd known at the time the kid's mother was going to be a problem; she was a loose end they should have taken care of rather than rushing off to the island instead. Maurden had been alive with the thrill of the project and had been certain that his mother would let him go. But she hadn't.

And in the end, Maurden had turned against them anyway. He'd lost his nerve, and Abra had him killed.

It was hard to feel now like the whole thing hadn't been a massive mistake. But he didn't want to be the one to undo their years of work, so he tried not to think about Sascha or the past that could implicate him in the problems of the present. He rather liked to blame that on someone else.

"Abra." His superior, Aurelia, walked up beside him, her eyes sharply rimmed with eyeliner.

"Yes?" He hated being subservient. But this was hardly the time to get into the issue of leadership with her.

"I want you to release the shadow cats," she said.

"Which one?" he asked.

"Lucy. And any of the others you can handle as well."

Abra nodded. Lucy had always been his favorite; he'd raised her from a hatchling.

"And I'd like you to get the children as well," she continued, crossing her arms. "Put them on my ship. Don't let anyone see you. And get the hell out of here. Don't wait for me or anyone else."

Abra nodded again.

People were rushing by him now, their footsteps like drums against the ship's deck. It rang in Abra's ears, blocking out other sounds and keeping him on edge. He'd gotten used to living in the quiet jungle after all these years. And leaving had him on edge.

"Where do you want me to take them?" he asked.

"Home," she replied. "Hopefully, I'll see you there."

With that, he left, fading into the shadows at the jungle's edge. The forest breathed and squirmed around him — a living, slithering entity. The heavy night was filled with unease among the brush. The birds and the bugs and the lizards were all still awake, all still stirring. It was a little disconcerting, he thought.

A moment later, his suspicions were confirmed.

The night behind him erupted, shattering and tumbling with the constant rattle of what could only be gunfire, bullets snapping against metal and ripping into flesh.

So the SeeDs were alive after all. _Damn._

He picked up his pace, his determination lifted further. They'd survived worse than this, he thought. And Lucy was only a few minutes away.

0 0 0

Kelly stood braced against the railing around the top hatch of the vessel, her back hammering into the railing every time the automatic machine gun belched out a bullet. Through the flashes of light, she could see the fire ripping into the side of the enemy ships. Their hulls were scarred and bleeding under her onslaught.

The gun pumped out more bullets, the volleys falling like a tidal wave over the vessels and filling her with an unaccustomed sense of power. She was heady with it, her blood running hot with each shot. A flush filled her cheeks.

Finally, the gun clicked instead of fired, her current available ammunition spent.

The silence that fell was a muted roar. The voices of the islanders were echoing over the water, orders being called in amongst the chaos that was keeping a firm foothold. In the other direction, Carson's voice was screaming over the communication system.

"What's going on?" he demanded. "Kelly! Is that you shooting, or them?"

Kelly stumbled down into the vessel's cabin, her back bruised and her heart only nearly beginning to slow. She needed to change positions now that she'd given herself away, so she tapped the green buttons on the navigation panel first and started up the ship's engines.

"Kelly?" It was Adrian's voice coming over the com now. "Are you okay?"

He sounded scared.

The ship lurched into movement, the force sending her momentarily reeling.

Once she regained her equilibrium, she opened a channel. "Adrian. I'm fine."

"What happened?" he asked.

"I had to delay them," she replied. She'd been watching the islanders prepare to leave since she first spotted them. People had been running around like ants, stuffing the holds of their vessels with everything that they could carry. She knew that everyone else wouldn't arrive in time to stop them from escaping unless she stepped in.

"Good. Keep an eye on them. But don't get too close. They might be armed."

"Okay."

"Be careful."

She smiled a little at the concern in his voice. "I will."

0 0 0

Quistis and Seifer dived through the dark hallways which yawned before them. Every step pumped more blood through Seifer's body, making him dizzy and throwing the world out of focus. Still, with as much as his adrenaline was making the building tilt and swerve around him, his thoughts were clear and damning.

It was obvious: the compound was nearly abandoned. He and Quistis had barely seen anyone, but it hadn't occurred to him that the islanders might actually be leaving the island completely. He should have figured it out. Of course they would move now that SeeDs had stumbled upon their secret.

He cursed himself, cursed his teammates.

They were the best damn soldiers in the world, and they'd been beaten by a bunch of jungle dwelling hippie scientists. What if they got down to the coast and found everyone already gone? There'd be nothing left behind then but the mangled body of Sascha Maurden and a bunch of mostly empty buildings. And Quistis's mission would be a failure. He didn't want that to happen — not for her, and not for himself.

She was a little out of breath when they finally approached the front door. It was hanging open, the night creeping in with all of its dangers. Carson and Adrian were already gone, on their way to intercept the islanders. Seifer and Quistis darted out into the dark after their comrades and it fell across them like a quilt. Disoriented and momentarily blind, they grasped each others hands and ran toward the trees. All was sound and touch: her fingers twined through his, their labored breathing, and their footsteps. Bahamut stirred to life in Seifer's head, sharpening his senses.

Shots exploded nearby, punishingly loud to his over-sensitive ears.

It was chaos. Then, as suddenly as it started, the shooting stopped.

Quistis's communication badge shuddered with sudden traffic.

"What's going on?" Carson demanded. "Kelly! Is that you shooting, or them?"

He paused and Seifer and Quistis continued to run.

Adrian came on next, his voice full of panic and worry. When Kelly finally responded, her words passed through and around Seifer; he didn't pick substance out of any of them. All he had room to process was that she was alive and safe.

Which was more than he could say for himself when a moment later a roar grumbled through the trees behind them.

Quistis swore, gripped his hand so hard it was painful, and they ran as fast as their feet could carry them, hoping the shadow cat hadn't noticed them yet. It gave Seifer a horrible shiver of deja vu. Running like this, covered in sweat, from the sound of this monster was going to haunt him from years, he thought…if he lived.

They burst out of the forest together into a meadow near the coast and almost plowed into the two people waiting there.

"Carson! Adrian!" Quistis shot past them, dragging Seifer along behind her. "Run!"

They didn't immediately respond, staring instead at the couple sprinting away from them. And Quistis skidded to a stop, turning around to yell at them again. The shadow cat tore through the trees then, breaking off branches in a shower of leaves and sticks. It was right above them, illuminated by the full moon, blood and terror made flesh.

Carson lifted one hand in the air and with a futile kind of fury summoned his guardian force. Leviathan rose up out of the earth, its dragon face not so different from that of the hostile shadow cat.

Leviathan hissed, his forked tongue sticking out of his mouth, and then his tightly corded body curved into a s-shape that exploded into a torrent of water.

Like a waterfall, it gushed white and frothy over the shadow cat, and the monster leapt and screamed in the tide, its eyes rolling back wildly in its head. Terrified, but seemingly unharmed, it turned and fled, its screams filling the night and forcing birds from their perches. The sound made the hair on the back of Seifer's neck stand up. And as Leviathan slithered back into the confines of Carson Brecht's mild and undeserving brain, he felt a short thrill.

_Water._

Hyne — that was it. It hadn't followed them into the water. And Sascha Maurden's body had been pulled from the sea. It was a simple method of control, one that average people like these without the benefit of elemental magic would be able to employ. It was what they needed to control these things, and he had Brecht to thank for discovering it.

"Oh my God." Carson fell to his knees. "Was that a…? Holy Hyne."

Quistis looked at Adrian, then at Seifer, her mouth hanging open. "Did you see how it reacted?" she asked.

"Yeah. Damn thing didn't even look hurt…just tore out of here," Adrian replied.

Carson was gasping, his forehead touching the ground now. He looked like he was hyperventilating, but Quistis ignored him. "Kelly," she said quickly into her com-badge. "We've found a way to deal with the shadow cat. I need you to look in the supplies and find anything you can that has water magic. We're going to need as much as possible. And if you can, waylay the islanders a bit. We need to keep these people from leaving before we get to them."

Seifer grinned; Quistis was taking charge again.

This was the Quistis he loved.

"Way ahead of you," Kelly replied. "They're scrambling, but I'd say you've got a good twenty minutes before they're going to depart. Where do you want me to meet you at?"

"Same place you dropped us off at," Quistis answered. "We're going to stock up. Then I want you to drop us off as close as you can to the islanders. We're going to take the offensive here. We can't let them get away with this kind of technology."

"All right. I'll get everything together and I'll be there in five minutes."

"Thanks." Quistis smiled and looked down at Carson who had finally pulled himself together. "Come on. We're going to need you," she said, her voice and her expression full of authority.

Seifer and Adrian shared a look, pride evident in both of them.

0 0 0

Aurelia looked over her ships. Their sides had been carved open and their guts were spilling out into the sea. She could still hear the rattle of gunfire in her head.

_This isn't happening_, she thought and closed her eyes. _Please, Hyne, this isn't happening._

She opened them again but nothing had changed. She shuddered with a mix of anger and fear. This was all her fault. Everything they had been working for, her parents and her grandparents, and now under her leadership everything they had done was crumbling. Years of hopes were being crushed. Generations were turning in their graves.

By God, if these people wanted a fight, she was going to give them one.

Her black hair swept around her, hovering like an angry storm cloud growing around her thoughts. If she was successful right now, at this final stage of the project, her name would be spoken for eternity among her people. Aurelia would be synonymous with salvation. She could even become a religious figure: a protector, an avenger, a goddess. This handful of SeeDs weren't going to stop that, she decided.

Casting her eyes to the trees, she wondered if Abra had released the rest of the shadow cats yet. Soon the creatures would be sweeping across the island like a scythe.

It was close enough to the way they'd been banished and humiliated generations ago to seem karmic. Soon, the world would remember their names, and if they didn't speak them with reverence the way they once had, then at least this time they might speak them with fear. One way or another, the entire world was going to face them soon. And not even Esthar, with all of it's technology, would be able to hurt them again.


	22. Blood Rush

Chapter 21: Blood Rush

The moon was in the middle of a wide arch through Cid's office window. He stared at it for a moment, tracing the foggy orb with his eyes. The night was ticking away, and he still wasn't sure what to do about Carson Brecht. The man had stolen one of the sea vessels from Garden's docking bay as well as the Ragnarok. And in neither instance had he even attempted to hide what he was doing, using his own instructor number and password. The young forensics officer had disappeared as well, and Cid had a decent idea where they had gone even though the cadet Brecht had talked into the piloting the Ragnarok for them was refusing to talk.

There had been no word yet from Quistis, Seifer, or Adrian.

It was obvious that Carson had gone after them. Or, rather, _her_.

Cid sighed. Carson was in direct defiance of an order. And there was nothing Cid could do to prevent the disciplinary action that was bound to take place when the instructor showed up again. At the very least, the man would lose his position. He'd be lucky to not be thrown out on his ass.

A flimsy sheet of paper sat on Cid's desk, waiting to be signed. The document would strip Brecht of his instructor's license and ban him from teaching at any Garden installation in the world. One the demotion was processed, Cid would then have to consider whether there was even a place in SeeD for Brecht any longer, and he was having a fit of conscience punishing the young instructor for being in love.

He tapped his pen against the top of his desk, playing a steady cadence.

"Cid?" His office door creaked open and the smoky form of his wife peeked in. Her dark hair tumbled about her pleasant, heart-shaped face and her hazel eyes took in his hunched form. "You're working much too hard," she said.

Cid shook his head. "I've got a lot to do."

"You always have a lot to do," she pointed out, clicking the door shut behind her. "Even you need a break sometimes. And besides, you're the boss. You can delegate."

"Do you know what's going on right now?" he asked.

Edea's eyebrows knitted together as she lowered herself into a chair. "No. I don't. Why don't you tell me."

"Quistis and Seifer are missing," he explained, his blood pressure rising. "I sent them to some island in the south sea to track down the monster we think killed that man that washed up on the beach several weeks ago. They haven't checked in since they left. The board is getting ready to write the whole team off as lost. So Carson Brecht stole a vessel to go after them, and he took a forensics student with him who isn't in any way trained for combat."

Edea frowned.

"They could all be dead," he said. "Our children...as close as we'll ever have, anyway."

Resting his chin in one hand, he looked across the desk at his wife. She had come up from Centra to spend a few days with him. It seemed like she was always around during the darkest times. It was a special talent of hers, to know when he needed her even when he didn't. But he wished he could see her during the happy times as well, to share their lives rather than just their sorrows. Sometimes it seemed like all they had in common were these kids, this doom, and this violence.

"When is it going to be over?" he asked.

"What?"

"This." He waved his hand around in a wide arch. "This constant work...this being apart...this stress. This Garden and those kids have fulfilled their duty -- they fought the sorceress and won. So when do we all get to move on?"

"Maybe we don't," she replied. "But, Cid...look at what you've built here. This school, these kids we've raised into beautiful, successful adults. Isn't it worth it?"

"I don't know," he replied, his voice quiet. At the moment, his work felt more like raising prime beef rather than mentoring troubled children.

Edea shook her head. "Whether you stay here or not, you can't keep going on like this," she said. "It's not healthy."

"My health is the last thing on my mind."

"It should be the first," she countered.

"Well, I don't exactly have that luxury," he snapped, feeling misunderstood and under appreciated. Edea knew only the sheltered world of her orphanage by the sea, saw only the beginning of these children's lives. She never had to deal with their end, never had to be the one responsible for their deaths.

Her lithe body shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "Cid..." she began, her voice low. "I'm worried about you."

Grimacing, Cid waved a hand. "Please...I have a lot to get done." It was a dismissal, and she knew it for what it was.

"If you really don't want me here, I'll go back to Centra," she replied as she got up. "But I'll wait to see how you feel about it tomorrow. Goodnight." She sent him one long look before hesitantly exiting the room, leaving a stream of fragrance in her wake. Cid loved the way she smelled, loved a lot of things about her. But he couldn't remember the last time he'd slept beside her, or the last time they'd made love.

The moon was glinting against the top of his window pane now. The world was turning, and work was not getting done. Morning would soon breathe light across the earth and find him sitting here on his hands. Picking up his pen, he set the inky tip against the solid line printed across the bottom of his paper. Carson Brecht's reprimand. Was that what he'd been on?

Right. Time to work.

The pen scratched against the paper, tracing out his first name. Mindlessly, he began scribbling his last when halfway through, his hand paused, leaving a blot of ink and a jagged line.

The breath suddenly left his body, creating a vacuum around him. Gasping, he dropped his pen and heard it clatter against the desk as if from a long distance. His shaking hand came up to his chest where his heart was throbbing hard...too hard against the overwhelming weight that had settled across his ribs -- crushing him, tearing him apart.

Edea?

Hyne. Where was she?

Cid tried to call out to his wife. But the moon rolled away and, gasping for breath, he watched the darkness fold in around him.

0 0 0

Seifer sat crouched between Adrian and Brecht, watching as Carson carved a battle plan into a small patch of bare dirt. None of them could see it well as Carson's own shadow obscured most of the details. Quistis nodded absently, allowing him the luxury of continuing to believe that he was in command, though everyone else knew clearly otherwise. Seifer was glad; he didn't like taking orders from anyone, but given the choice he knew who he'd rather take them from.

"So you two will flank them on this side, and we'll come in with the ship on the other," Brecht continued, drawing circles. "We'll block their exit from this direction and this direction." He sliced several long lines through the blob that was supposed to represent the island. "Than, having them netted, we'll take out all their available means of transportation with the machine gun while you two attack from the rear."

_You two_. That he meant Seifer and Adrian was clear from the way he pointedly looked up at them from time to time to make sure they caught that point. They were expendable to him. His plan had them taking all the risk while Carson waited in the comfort of the ship with Quistis by his side.

Seifer sat back and said nothing. He was putting up with Brecht for one reason — Leviathan. They'd managed to scrape together a meager amount of water magic, but none of them were as equipped to get them through the forest alive as Brecht. As much as Seifer hated to admit it, they needed him.

"Once that's done…" Carson continued, droning on until Quistis finally interrupted him.

"We can't sit here and strategize any longer," she announced. "It's almost dawn. By the time we're done, they'll all be gone. Let's just get in there and wing it."

"Wing it?"

Seifer thought Brecht's eyes looked like they might actually pop out of his head.

"Quistis…you don't just _wing_ something like this."

"Sure you do," she replied, glancing in Seifer's direction. "We're all capable here of working on the fly. And seeing as these people aren't military, speed is more important than strategy. Let's get in there and get this thing done."

Adrian grunted his approval, and Seifer nodded, throwing the majority vote in Quistis's direction.

Defeated, Carson slammed his hand down on his plan and childishly destroyed it. "Fine," he huffed. "We'll _wing_ it."

Quistis didn't acknowledge his tantrum. Instead, she stood up, dusted off her skirt, and asked, "Everyone ready?"

Seifer and Adrian got up as well, the former lifting his blade so that it glinted in the last of the moonlight while the later folded his hands into fists so that the muscles in his arms bulged.

"Kelly," Quistis said, turning to the petite woman. "You've got plenty of ammunition, so reload in case we need you to come in and help. You'll have to make that judgement. But I'll try to signal you if we need you."

"Gotcha."

"Carson, we need you to stick close to the trees. You're the only one who can quickly get rid of a shadow cat," she reminded him, then clapped her hands together. "Let's move out."

Kelly waded back to the vessel as they walked back into the trees. Carson was walking close behind Quistis who was in the lead. Kelly had found the islanders in a tiny inlet on the eastern coast. It was isolated and protected on both sides by outcroppings of bare rock. A slice of beach running up to the trees was the space they'd have to wage the battle in, and from the forest was the only direction from which they could attack. It wasn't a great situation to be in — the enemy would surely have the tree line covered by men with guns. But Seifer was confident that if they could survive the shadow cats on the way there, the people wouldn't pose much of a problem.

Even with as exhausted as he was, Seifer was looking forward to the fight. Battle was the only thing he'd ever been any good at and he loved it. Still, he wondered why someone like Quistis would chose to stay in this profession. Obviously, she was talented. But she had so many other options. She didn't have to muck around in the dirt and blood with people like him. Sometimes when he really thought about it, SeeD made him feel like a trained junk-yard dog: a dumb brute who'd foam at the mouth on command. But that Quistis chose the same path alleviated that sensation. When he fought alongside her, it felt like a noble profession, like something to be proud of.

They crept quietly through the brush, years of training guiding their steps, harnessing conscious thought. Every leaf and stick was meticulously avoided. Next to him, Seifer could almost feel Adrian bunching with tension. The air was growing thick, making it hard to breathe, as adrenaline dripped like liquid fire into Seifer's veins.

There was no resistance until Quistis stopped them all by putting out one arm. "They're right up ahead," she announced, her extraordinary senses piercing through the thick foliage. "Remember that these are civilians. Take out anyone armed first…anyone who looks like they might be in charge."

Everyone nodded.

"Kelly," she said softly into her communicator. "Are you in position?"

"I'm still reloading," came Kelly's soft reply. "Can you give me a minute?"

"Sorry. We can't wait. We're going in, so join us when you can," Quistis said.

She grabbed her whip then, stretching it out so that it glistened gold in the fading night. Then, with one glance at Seifer, she gave them the signal to attack.

They shot out onto the beach in a blind rush, coming up behind a group of men who were looking out to sea. Quistis's whip wrapped around one of the men's necks, shattering the silence as she pulled fiercely back and cracked his spine. Seifer swung his gunblade with equal fervor, nearly severing his opponent's head, but he pulled back quickly, reticent of the danger of getting his blade lodged in bone.

Blood sprayed, showering the sand and filling the air with a hot, metallic smell. Seifer breathed it in deeply, knowing it well. Blood. Death. It triggered the base, feral animal in him, set him instantly into the mode to fight, to attack.

Men rushed to help their fallen comrades, some of them splattered with the blood from the swipe of Seifer's blade. With a wild roar, he cut them down one by one. His muscles strained as he dove into them, letting loose a river of crimson that coated Hyperion, flying off in terrible arcs every time he swung.

Quistis was using magic, freezing men with an icy blast and then lashing out at them with her whip while they were still prone and groaning in pain.

Then, a woman rose up out of the melee, her dark hair riding wild on the night. "Get them!" she roared. "Somebody kill them! Get the shadow cats!" She was barking orders at anyone who would listen, her lithe legs moving her steadily toward the water and the ship docked there. Seifer watched her out of one eye.

Was she the leader? Or was she just taking charge of the situation because someone had to? He wasn't sure, but he also wasn't going to take the chance and let her get away.

A woman shrieked as she flung herself at him, clinging to his back like a spider. Her weight knocked him to the ground, driving his face into the blood soaked sand and pinning Hyperion beneath him. She dug her fingers into his hair, clawing at him and shoving his face into the ground, intent on suffocating him. Not for the first time, Seifer came to the conclusion that there was no fighter more fearless and creative than a half-crazed women. There were no rules of combat which governed them.

Summoning all of his strength, Seifer rolled to the side, throwing her off his back and onto the ground.

He cried out when her fingers found his face, one of her nails raking hard across his cheek. He felt a warm dribble of blood run down to his chin and a blaze of pain fire across his nerve endings.

He flexed, hitting her hand with his available arm as he fended off a new attacker with his boot heel. It was like fighting a swarm of bees. No one seemed to be afraid of them, and everyone seemed willing to die for the sake of the hive. Then Adrian dove by in a flash, knocking the newest assailant out of the way. The woman screamed and the volume of it momentarily stymied Seifer. A moment later, he collected himself and slammed his fist into her face, shattering her nose. She wailed and scuttled away, her hands cradling her face.

Seifer launched onto his feet.

The battle seemed to be moving in fast forward around him. Waving Hyperion menacingly, he bolted downhill toward the water, using his momentum to take down the two men coming toward him. One he cut down, the other he knocked back with a devastating flare spell.

None of these people were armed. What could they be hoping for here, Seifer wondered, except a massacre? He'd never seen civilians throw themselves into battle like this before. These certainly weren't ordinary people.

He raced down the slope to the bullet strewn vessels. The one that had taken the brunt of Kelly's attack was nothing but a hump of twisted metal now. Supplies from inside had been shredded and had spilled out the side to float in the sea.

Seifer looked amongst the wreckage. He knew he'd seen the woman come this way. If she was their leader, then this was their chance to stop the fight before too many people died, as well as enact retribution for the death of Sascha Maurden, the development of the shadow cat, and the end they'd had planned for Quistis. It was classic hero stuff, bringing about justice in a world filled with chaos and violence and death.

"Looking for me?" She appeared beside him suddenly, like a phantom, and pressed the cold end of a hand gun eagerly against his temple. "I know how you SeeD people work, which is why I want you to know that I'm going to kill you without thinking twice. And it's _your_ body I'm going to send back to Garden as a warning. Congratulations."

Then, the early, bloody dawn came alive with gunfire.


	23. Dawn Breaks

_"If there's nothing but survival, how can I believe in sin?"_ - Bon Jovi

Chapter 22: Dawn Breaks

Seifer flinched, his eyes squeezing shut for just a second as gunfire tore into the boats, sending shrapnel flying up against the hillside. The chunks of torn metal bit into the ground, tossing up plumes of sand in their wake. The constant, unceasing rattle bounced about in Seifer's head until his vision blurred with it. Soon, the nearest boat was reduced to a steaming pile of rubble and the ground was beaten raw with impacts. A still hot section of the ship's hull rolled back down, past Seifer, and into the hungry sea.

Beside him, the sudden onslaught had caused his dark-haired nemesis to look away from him. She was staring now in horror at her ship, her hand lax around the gun.

Raw instinct took over. The bone running up his arm cried out as his fist connected with hers, knocking the gun to the side and allowing his head to narrowly avoid a wild shot that tore off into the crowd still crawling along the beach like ants.

Hyperion arched up in his other hand, a blur of blue steel. His wrist guided it smooth and strong, bringing the blade up in a deadly scythe toward her wrist. She realized his intent to separate her hand from her body in the nick of time and pulled back so that Hyperion connected instead with the barrel of her gun, dislodging it completely from her grip.

Wide eyed, she stared at him.

The expression vanished when Seifer hit her, sending her sprawling dizzily backwards. Her dark eyes rolled in her head, showing their pearly white underbellies.

He hit her again, ruthlessly. The impact made his knuckles sting and she fell backward down the slope. Her feet flew up in the air, her body folding as she splashed down into the shallow water.

Seifer ran down the embankment after her, his feet sinking deeply into the upturned sand and nearly sending him sprawling into the sea along side her. Pinwheeling an arm steadied him, and he took the rest at a slower pace. She was bobbing unconscious in the waves, and Seifer plucked her up by one arm as if she were a rag doll. He clutched her lump, wet form tight to his chest.

They were going to need her, and it was important that everyone on the beach see that she was now in custody. Perhaps then they would lose purpose and direction, allow their anger to mellow into unease. Now that the queen had been crushed, the colony might disperse.

"Seifer!" Kelly yelled over his communication badge.

"Right here," he replied.

"Are you okay? I saw that woman sneak up on you."

"I'm fine," he replied. "I've got her down by the destroyed ship. Can you come in close enough to pick her up?"

"I don't know that I can come in quite that far," she replied. "If I beach, I'll use up a lot of fuel getting back into the water."

Not wanting to be stuck on the island forever, Seifer answered, "Okay. Come in until I can see you then. I'll wade out to you with her." He paused, shifting her weight against him. "I need to get rid of her and back into the fight." Up above, spells were still flying. Quistis was using non-lethal stuff: stop, break, sleep. And it was hard to tell who was lying unconscious in the sand versus who was dead. But as Seifer looked over the melee, everyone on his team was still well and accounted for. Even Brecht.

"I'm on my way," Kelly said.

As Seifer sat waiting for her, the seconds stretched into an oblivion and all of his pains had time to rise to the surface. It had only been a few days since the shadow cat had dealt him one of the most devastating injuries he'd suffered in his entire life, and he still wasn't fully recovered. Now he could feel it, a shadow of trembling exhaustion that Quistis's healing magic hadn't been able to mend. The longer he sat, the heavier he grew.

He'd nearly died, he thought. He damn well had earned the right to feel tired. But for some reason it embarrassed him.

With the whirr of an engine, the passing of moments, Kelly was there.

"I'm as close as I can get."

"Okay. Get something to tie her up with. Or even better, see if we have any way to sedate her. I don't want her to be up and about until we want her to be."

"Right. I'll see what I can find."

Hauling the woman with him, Seifer splashed through the perilous water strewn with debris and sharp bits of metal — some floating and easy to avoid, and others which had sunk to the bottom, a hidden menace.

Kelly threw open the side hatch as he waded toward her, casting her frame in the shadow from the onboard lights. She looked delicate and welcome there, a girl not completely at home against the backdrop of war. She reminded him for a moment of the romantic dreams of knighthood he'd had as a child, of the honor that accompanied serving a woman, defending her and all she represented. It was an old dream. Faded. And it flitted away quickly on the breeze.

"This one woman is in charge of the whole island?" Kelly asked. "Hard to believe that she could cause this much misery."

"You'd be surprised what one woman can do," Seifer replied.

He heaved her up onto the dry floor of the vessel and her head lolled back into what looked like a painful angle. Kelly bent down and laid her flat before offering a hand to help Seifer inside.

She frowned at him. "You don't look to good."

He shrugged off her concern. "Find anything to tie her up with?"

"Yeah." She held up some clear plastic zip ties.

"Great." Seifer took them with a smile and began securing the woman's hands.

"Everything going all right out there?" Kelly asked and sank her two front teeth into her lower lip. "I mean…we're winning? Everyone's okay?"

"They're fine. Should be all over in a few minutes."

She watched him, her smell hands sitting against her thighs. Seifer had to remind himself that she was out of her element and that she wasn't as comfortable with killing as he was. She had a shell-shocked look about her. Maybe an influx of guilt from thinking about everyone who she might have hurt with the machine gun barrage.

It wasn't much, but he slung a wet arm over her tiny frame and pulled her close, offering what comfort he could give.

0 0 0

Quistis surveyed the scene. Quite a few of the islanders had fled back into the trees, but even more of them were still upon the beach, lying about in various states of distress. Everyone was bleeding. Even she had a nasty gash above her eye that was trickling blood. She dashed the current stream away with the back of her hand.

Her chest and arms ached from casting and swinging her heavy whip.

Honestly, he hadn't been subjected to such a rigorous workout in a long time. Even her hardest training sessions with Seifer hadn't left her feeling quite this drained. But the pain was welcome and wonderful. The last time she remembered feeling this way was during the war, and she was eager to reclaim any of her old glory from those times.

Dawn had broke across the island. The sun was struggling up from its ocean bed, wandering hazily into the sky. She thought that had it been given the choice, it would have stayed away from the island and shined its happy rays on some other place. She didn't like the way it was illuminating the horror of the scene on the beach.

The battle had been decidedly one-sided. Even toward the end, when a shadow cat had emerged screaming from the jungle, the SeeDs hadn't missed a beat. As admirable as it was that the islanders hadn't given in, their resolve had increased the bloodshed and slaughter.

Carson stumbled over to her, a large bruise forming on his jaw and an oozing cut running down the length of his arm.

"Where is everyone else?" she asked him.

He stared at her for a moment, then finally shook his head and said, "I don't know."

"Over here!" Adrian was waving one arm from where he was sitting some distance away in the grass. He had an angry looking gash on his chin. Somehow, he still managed to look charming, despite the fact that he was standing amongst his victims and his arms were covered in a sticky sheen of sweat and blood. He reminded Quistis of a dragon in its lair, carelessly licking its wounds as the bones of its last meal rolled between its claws.

"What about Seifer?" Quistis spun around, searching for him. "Where's Seifer?"

She'd caught sight of him a few times during the fight when a glint of light off Hyperion would catch her eye, signaling her that he was still okay. It was reassuring to see him in a fight because he was steady and solid, the sort of partner who'd always be around to save her if she got in a bind. Now she couldn't see him anywhere. A dark weight filled her stomach.

Adrian groaned and pushed himself up onto his feet. The early dawn made the sea spray come alive with a shower of sparkles that rose into the air like a fog around them. Adrian wandered through it, picking his way over prone bodies and ignoring those who groaned in pain. Quistis might have felt more pity looking at them if they hadn't held her captive, hadn't drugged Adrian. Still, the sight was pathetic. And that pity mixed with her already turbulent emotions to drive her to a tender peak.

"Quistis?" Adrian stopped next to her. "You might want to check in with Kelly."

Adrian's own communicator had been torn open and pieces were still tumbling out of the inside of it. Once the shooting had stopped, Quistis had forgotten all about Kelly. She obviously hadn't escaped Adrian.

"Sure." She nodded, then spoke into her com. "Kelly? Are you out there?"

Silence.

Carson weaved, looking a little dizzy.

Then, the voice that finally came over the com snapped him to attention. "Quistis?" It wasn't Kelly. It wasn't even female.

"Seifer?" Relief swamped her. "Where are you? Where's Kelly?"

"We're both on the ship," he replied. "Kelly's watching over our prisoner."

"You have a prisoner?"

"Yeah. The woman in charge of all this."

Quistis couldn't hide her astonishment. How had Seifer managed to pick out the leader in amongst all the chaos? His intrinsic abilities as a soldier continued to astound her.

"Is everyone okay?" It was Kelly's voice this time.

"We're all fine," Quistis replied. "A little beat up, but okay."

"Good. I was worried." Kelly sounded relieved.

"We need to gather up all of the survivors," Quistis announced. "We'll treat their injuries and hold them until we've got some real answers."

"We're about to get a few of those," Seifer said. "Hold on. We'll come back in toward shore."

"Okay. See you then." Quistis looked up at Carson. "You can Adrian need to start going through these people and helping whoever you can."

The two obeyed her order without hesitation. Carson's obedience was surprising since he'd always seemed so adverse to her playing any kind of dominant role in their relationship. He'd always been adamant about her frailty, refusing to see her as a strong, capable woman. She felt validated as she watched him walk among the injured men and women, finally under her command.

The Garden vessel, sleek and shiny, appeared in the inlet within moments, and Seifer's blond head poked out the top of greet them. He looked the part of a conquering hero with his hair whipping dramatically in the wind. Quistis smiled, then lifted herself up onto her toes and waved.

He waved back.

Carefully, she made her way across the small beach, intending to wade out and join him on the ship. Since this was her mission, the prisoner (despite the fact that she had been captured by Seifer) was her responsibility. So she splashed into the shallow water, hoping to make her intentions clear.

"Morning," Seifer said when he opened the door. He reached out with one hand to help her inside.

"Morning," she replied, business-like.

Kelly was sitting in the pilot seat, still looking flushed from the small part she'd played in the battle. It had been her first, probably her only, battle. And the look she had reminded Quistis of the first time she'd been taken out into the field.

Another woman was lying slumped against the wall. Plastic ties were wrapped tightly around her hands and ankles, rendering her completely immobile. Fully awake, her dark eyes were narrowed angrily and her mouth was turned down into a nasty grimace. She was tall and thin, wearing a pair of plain black pants and a white shirt that fit tight over her ample breasts. And she had a few yellow bruises that were just forming, including one that covered the length of her jaw from chin to ear.

The woman met Quistis's gaze and locked on hard, her expression one of blind hostility.

Quistis crossed her arms. "Do you know what's happened to your friends?" she asked, allowing a hint of malice to slide into her voice. The woman didn't respond, so she continued. "The battle is over. We haven't counted up the dead and wounded yet, but all the casualties are yours. Several people ran back into the woods. So I hope they're all good at avoiding the shadow cats."

The woman stared, unflinching.

"Kelly?" Quistis turned. "I think Adrian could use your help on the beach."

Kelly wasted no time exiting the boat. Her splash into the ocean was loud in the heavy silence that had fallen since the battle, and it made both Seifer and Quistis jump involuntarily. Jittery, they looked to one another for stability, then turned back to the task at hand.

"Listen," Quistis began. "We need some answers. You can give them to us, or we can force them out of you. But either way, we're going to get them. And we've got all the time we need to do whatever it takes."

"I'm not telling you anything," she barked, her voice low and serious. "You're SeeDs."

"Good ones, too," Seifer replied. "We know how to handle the shadow cats, you're our prisoner, and all your people are either dead or on the run…face it; it's over. Just answer our questions."

"I'd rather die."

Grimacing, Seifer cast a pain spell on her. The pink halo of the spell surrounded her and wrung a cry from her lips. The spell itself was slow and agonizing. She arched her back, closed her eyes, and groaned as another shudder of pain ripped through her body. Used by an expert at magic like Quistis, the spell was deadly. Under Seifer's hand it was merely uncomfortable, but persuasively so.

"Well?" Quistis prompted.

"Fuck you!"

The spell hit in another horrible wave, leaving her panting and sweaty.

"What's your name?" Quistis asked, undaunted.

The woman clenched her teeth, unwilling to divulge anything, even something innocuous. The pain came again, and then Seifer flashed his intimidating blade. "Name!"

"We'd rather not do this," Quistis said. "And the sooner you cooperate, the sooner I can get back out there on the beach and start healing the injured."

Again, they received stubborn silence from their captive. Quistis was well versed in several ugly methods of getting information out of unwilling subjects, but she had always found the most effective one involved no pain, just irrepressible fear. It was easy enough.

Searching the back of her mind, Quistis found her guardian force — Diablos. Immediately, she knew that she'd gotten his attention. The air in the small vessel grew heavy and dank. Then time itself shuddered, peeling open and dropping in unfurled chunks upon the ground. The effect was instant and severe disorientation, vertigo and deja vu combined into a potent, heady stew. Quistis was protected from the effect of Diablos's presence and saw Seifer step closer into the protective bubble around her.

Bats materialized out of nowhere, racing black and screeching through the ship's cabin. They tumbled over one another, wings beating against flesh, and a number of them caressed the woman's shuddering form. Turning and twisting, they swirled into a single black ball that hovered and quivered in the middle of the air.

Diablos crawled out of the muck, his throat releasing a snake-like sigh. Then there was a crack like thunder as his wings snapped forth, sending a spray of black ooze everywhere. He crawled near the woman on his bulky arms, his beady red eyes never leaving her face. As his tail and legs were freed from the dissolving ball, he flapped to raise himself up off the floor and ran his claws down the woman's arms, too close and too eerily gentle for comfort. The pain spell was still running hot in her blood though, unaffected by the distorting effects Diablos had on time.

His white teeth glistened, and he gathered her up, pressing her close against his black and red skin.

Quistis didn't even know exactly what was happening. She had no idea what the effects of being embraced by the ethereal demon were, but she knew that this method of breaking a prisoner had never failed. The results couldn't be argued with.

The woman screamed long and loud. Her shrill cry vibrated between Diablos's wings, then stuck in the odd folds of time. She struggled to get away from him, her dark eyes wide and horrified.

"That's enough," Quistis said, calling the whole scene back into her head. Diablos resisted for a moment like he always did, then finally bent to her will and dissipated with a haughty poof of bat wings. The woman was left crumbled on the floor, still shaking with terror.

Seifer stepped forward.

"What's your name?" he asked quietly.

She sucked in a shaky breath. "Aurelia."

Finally, they were getting somewhere.

"All right. Good. Where are you from?" Seifer asked.

She looked up, sweat beading on her forehead. "Centra," she finally replied.

Quistis crossed her arms. "No one is from Centra. Except for a few small places southern shore, the entire continent has been deserted since the Lunar Cry."

"The Lunar Cry which _we_ survived," Aurelia said. "And now…we've made sure it will never happen again."


	24. The Revolution

Chapter 23: The Revolution

Seifer stared down at Aurelia, not sure that he'd heard her correctly. Had she really said Centra? There hadn't been anyone living there for…hell, a long time. All he knew about the native population was that they'd been wiped out a long time ago by a Lunar Cry, the first victims of the Lunatic Pandora. Other than that, he knew nothing about them. He wasn't exactly a student of history.

Quistis glanced at him once, her expression wary. "You're all here Centran refugees? I find that hard to believe."

Aurelia narrowed her eyes to dark, hostile slits.

"You can believe whatever the hell you want to."

Quistis crossed her arms and shifted her weight onto one foot. It was a stance that Seifer was all too familiar with: she was in her instructor pose, that closed off way she had of standing and staring that drove straight through to a person's soul. It stripped away defenses, burned deep down to the truth.

"If it's true, then how did your people escape the Lunar Cry unscathed?" she asked.

"Unscathed?" Aurelia's hands tightened into fists so tight her knuckles turned white. "There's only a handful of us left, the remnants of an entire _civilization_. And you think that's unscathed?"

Quistis sighed, but tilted her head to show she was listening.

"My grandparents lived in a small town at the southern edge of the country," Aurelia continued. "It's an area in the forest, surrounded by trees on all sides. It was one of many cities spread across the whole continent. Our capital was in the mountains, guarded by tonberries. We domesticated them…kept them as pets and servants. And we had another protector, as well. That's why Adel targeted us."

"Another protector?" Seifer repeated, not sure what she was getting at.

"Odin."

"Odin is a guardian force," Quistis replied. "We've met him."

"A guardian force…yes. But he's different than the rest. He only offers his protection to a group."

For a moment, Seifer leaned back against the wall and let what she'd said sink in. It was true: Odin wasn't an average guardian force. And his home was in Centra about where she'd described. In fact, the whole place had been crawling with tonberries, now that he thought about it.

"We didn't know about the Lunatic Pandora," Aurelia continued. "That Esthar would even build such a thing…the Lunar Cry dumped monsters all across Centra. We were flooded with them. Dragons. Abyss worms. Everything you can imagine. The sheer number of them overwhelmed our military. They infested our cities. Red dragons would fly over, spraying their breath attack through the streets. Everything was destroyed."

She looked genuinely pained as she told the story.

"My ancestral city was left in ruins. And our civilization was wiped out of existence. Nobody survived, except us. My family left before the cry happened. They'd moved to the coast. After the cities were gone, the monsters eventually began to move there, too. So there was nothing left to do but pack up and ship off to sea, hoping for the best. My grandparents and a few others eventually landed here on this island. The buildings were already here, built and abandoned by Esthar."

"And so you set to developing a new protector?" Quistis guessed. "New watch-dogs that could take whatever kind of monster someone could throw at you."

"You could say that." Aurelia looked up at Seifer from under half-closed lids. "What would you do if your home was attacked like that? SeeDs use guardian forces. You use that…_thing _to protect yourself and your friends. Why should we be any different?"

"What about Sascha Maurden?" Quistis asked. "How does he fit into all of this?"

"I told you…it was just a few of us that survived. We didn't have enough people to do this alone. So we recruited in Galbadia. Sascha worked for us."

"So what happened to him? How did he end up floating dead in the ocean?"

Aurelia shrugged. "You tell me."

"Okay. Assuming his death was just an accident, then why attack us? Why not tell us all of this from the get-go?"

Aurelia gave them an odd look, as if to say that it should be obvious. "You're mercenaries. You hire yourself out to anyone with enough money to pay for your magic and your guardian forces. You don't care who you're fighting or why."

"We're not working for Esthar," Quistis replied.

"Aren't you? Isn't your commander, Squall Leonhart, the president of Esthar's son?"

Quistis had to cede the point. "Yes. But Esthar is also a different country now. Adel is dead."

"Doesn't matter." Aurelia shook her head and sank back against the wall. "Esthar falls, Galbadia rises. There's always someone throwing around their weight, wielding people like you as a club."

Quistis turned around and pushed her hair out of her face. Her gaze slid swiftly across Seifer's face before she stepped past him and dropped back down into the sea, leaving Seifer alone with the dark-haired revolutionary. The scent of salt washed in with the seawater that crested in through the door to wash across the floor.

There was something admirable about Aurelia, Seifer thought. She wasn't a solider stupidly following orders. And she wasn't a general drunk on too much power. Rather, she was the last remnant of a lost people, living in a sweaty, bug infested jungle at the edge of civilization. She was trying to build a future for her people, holding on tight to her ancestry. Her blood drove her, and a deep sense of the past. That tight sense of herself as part of a group, part of a culture, intrigued Seifer. He'd never known his parents or where he'd come from. And the people he identified himself with, SeeDs, were just like him — the loose flotsam of society. He envied her history, even though it was tragic.

She stared defiantly up at him from the floor.

Without saying anything to her, he turned and followed Quistis out into the sea.

0 0 0

Edea's eyes were tired, her vision blurry. Her entire bottom was numb and the stack of magazines in her lap had been flipped through enough times that the edges of the pages were bent and torn. The tips of her fingers were sore, but she continued to flip sheet after sheet.

Xu had had found Cid in his office, mere minutes after Edea had left him for the night. He'd suffered a major heart attack and managed to hit the intercom button, sending a pulse to Xu's desk. When she went to check on him, she found him pasty-faced, barely able to stand, and she'd immediately called the infirmary's emergency number.

Thank goodness she'd been there.

Edea, on the other hand, was consumed with guilt that she hadn't been. In fact, when she'd left him, she'd been irritated because he hadn't listened to her concerns, because he'd dismissed her. Now that felt petty. If she'd stayed a bit longer, she might have been there for him. Even if she couldn't have done anything to help, at least she would have _been_ there. A loving face.

They had always been apart. Their whole marriage had been spent on different continents, pursuing different goals. Now that she was faced with the possibility of losing him forever to a distance not measurable, not navigable, she regretted those lost years and everything that could have been if their fates had blown them down a different path. Pressing her lips to her knuckles, she closed her eyes and mouthed a silent prayer.

The infirmary was buzzing with voices now. Outside in the hallway, students were slowing down on their way to class. Everyone seemed to know that something had happened. Rumors were already spreading like wildfire.

"Edea." Dr. Kadowaki stepped into the waiting room. "I have news."

Edea nodded, ready to take whatever it would be. "What is it?"

With a small smile, the doctor rested her hand on Edea's shoulder and lowered herself into a seat. "He's out of the woods for now," she said, her words spilling like a flash flood across the barren desert. "We've got to keep an eye on him. But…I think he's going to be okay."

0 0 0

Carson waved at Quistis from the beach, his hand wriggling around in the air like a dying fish.

She sloshed out of the water, her boots sinking into the sand, and pretended not to see him. Right now, she needed time to think, not a long chat with her troublesome boyfriend. Out of the sand and up through the grass, she strode quickly toward the trees, eager to lose herself for a moment in their shadows. Adrian and Kelly were standing together and talking near the tree line. His knuckles were brushing softly across her hair and Kelly was brushing profusely. It didn't surprise Quistis that Adrian was applying his charms to her, but he seemed unusually sincere, a little more honest and not quite as polished as usual.

Past them, Quistis pushed through the thick fan of ferns and into the woods. She continued on a few paces before stopping, resting one hand against the trunk of a tree.

Now that the battle was over, the faces of the people who'd died on the beach floated up to fill the emptiness adrenaline had left behind. Were they what Aurelia said? Were they all that was left of the Centran people, just trying to pull their civilization back together, trying to scrape together a little security so that they could finally return home? Quistis had read a little about the destruction of Centra and knew just how terrible the effects of the cry had been on that country. It was easy to imagine how the experience, even generations down the line, could have resulted in this frightened, reclusive, and violent island-nation.

But even if she could see their point of view, Quistis knew what she had to do. Garden regulations didn't give her any choice in the matter, and the issue of the shadow cats was a serious one, even if they now knew how to control the beasts. The technology alone was dangerous. She had to return them all to Garden. Not just Aurelia, but everyone on the island. And Garden would bury them. They couldn't let word of this get to Galbadia or Esthar.

Maybe it was best for Centra to remain destroyed.

She rubbed her forehead, not sure how to process this.

"Quistis?" Seifer's voice came through the trees moments before he did, the dappled sunlight freckling his cheeks. "What're you doing?"

"Nothing. Just thinking."

His eyebrows pinched together. "About what Aurelia said?"

"Yeah."

"You believe her?" he asked.

"I suppose so. Why? You don't?"

He crossed his arms. "I don't know. I think there's more to it than what she's telling us. You know, some important detail she's leaving out. Seemed to me like she broke kind of easy."

"You'd be surprised how many people have broken in Diablos's arms," Quistis replied.

"Maybe. But I guess that's for everyone back at Garden to figure out, right? I'm sure by the time they're done with all these people, we'll be able to breed our own shadow cats to stock the training center."

He was right. Their part was done.

It hit her then as she stood there looking up at him. Their time on the island together was over, and she was going to have to face reality again. Carson had never been right for her — it was going to be a painful, messy break between them. And she still wasn't sure whether Seifer's interest in her would survive the trip back to Garden. It was hard to judge what they could be together outside of this mission.

"Seifer?" She stepped toward him.

"Yeah?"

She didn't know how to ask what she wanted to, so she tangled one hand in the fabric of her skirt, hanging onto it like a life preserver, and tried to work the words free. There was too much still up in the air to form a cogent question that would assuage all of her uncertainty. Did she mean anything to him? Or was what had happened between them purely physical? Did he want to try for something more?

For a minute, he watched her, his green eyes unwavering. Then he looked away and crossed his arms.

"Loose ends can be wrapped up later," he said, his gaze finally coming back to her. "Right?"

"Yeah," she replied, her voice small.

"Good. Come on." He offered her his hand. "There's people back on the beach who need you."


	25. The Way Home

Chapter 24: The Way Home

Exhausted by a long day of tending to the wounded, of systematically undoing all of the damage her whip and her spells had done, Quistis stretched her arms out above her head and held them there until her back popped. It felt good, like a pocket of tension had burst and all the regret she'd built over the few islanders she'd been unable to save was flowing free, ebbing away.

"Is that everyone?" Adrian asked as he walked by.

"Everyone on the beach," Quistis replied. "We'll have to leave behind anyone who ran back into the trees. The shadow cats will find them long before we do."

Nodding, Adrian brushed his hands off on his pants and kicked some fresh sand over a patch soaked in blood before walking back down the beach to where Kelly was loading the last of the islanders onto one of their now commandeered ships. They'd had several and only one was still floating. The other two had washed in toward shore as they sank and were now mired in the shallows. Seifer was ransacking them for supplies. Every once and a while, a crate would come flying out and land with a careless splash in the water.

All things considered, this was better a better end to her mission than she'd imagined two days ago. But it still felt like a bittersweet victory. Too many civilians had died -- people whose lives might have been saved if she'd acted sooner rather than using their time inside the compound to reconnoiter. And, worst of all, she'd only been able to salvage this end out of a throughly spoiled mission with Carson Brecht's help. Without his intervention, it would have been an utter failure.

She'd probably lose a rank when they got back to Garden.

Shaking off that discouraging thought, she waded out to where their Garden vessel was bobbing in the waves. Aurelia was still inside, her wrists bound to a cargo hook behind her. She sat up straight and narrowed her eyes when Quistis pulled herself up into the ship.

"Don't look at me like that," Quistis said and sat down at the navigation panel.

"Like what?" Aurelia asked petulantly.

"I'm not your enemy," Quistis replied, irritated. "I just spent the entire day healing your friends and countrymen_. _So don't look at me like that."

Aurelia rolled her eyes. "Fixing some of the damage you've done doesn't change what you are."

"What I _am_ is the person who killed the Sorceress Adel. I'm the person who promised Sascha Maurden's mother that I'd find out how he died." Quistis spun around in her chair, putting her back to the other woman. Her hands moved absent-mindedly over the keys and lit up the navigation screen. "I thought Seifer gave you something to put you to sleep. Least he could have done was a silence spell."

"Your boyfriend?" Aurelia asked unexpectedly.

"What?"

"Is Seifer your boyfriend? Or...husband maybe?"

Crinkling up her nose, Quistis said, "Of course not."

"You seem awfully close for colleagues. I heard all about how you two were caught in the act." Aurelia's voice was thick with condescension. "Was that before or after you somberly considered your vow to Sascha's mother?"

For a moment, Quistis considered the possibility that Diablos had loosened the woman's mouth a little too well. She punched keys forcefully as she programmed their course back to the mainland into the ship's computer. Ignoring the question, partly because Aurelia was right (Quistis hadn't exactly been a paragon of virtue on this mission), she stood up and said, "We'll be leaving before nightfall. It's going to be a long trip, so get comfortable."

As she left, Quistis brushed her hand over her whip, just to prove she meant business.

Outside, Seifer was hauling all the crates he'd tossed into the water up onto the beach. A few of them he'd set aside to be transferred to the ship they'd be leaving on — important supplies like food, water, and medicine.

"Gotta say," he said as he sloshed by, "these people were either already packed to leave at a moment's notice, or they've been working their tails off since we got here to get all this stuff together. You should see how much stuff they had in that ship. More than enough to start all over again somewhere."

"Anything other than supplies?" Quistis asked.

"Yeah. There's some hard drives and a server, but they're swamped."

"At least no one else is going to get whatever was on them," she replied and shrugged. "Do you need any help?"

"Nope. I'm done. Wasn't much worth taking."

He followed her as she walked up to the ship and past where Adrian and Kelly were handling the last of the prisoners. Inside, Carson was getting them all settled into the cargo holds where they'd weather most of the trip. Quistis stepped past the first cargo hold's door and began climbing steps up toward the deck. The ship was at least fifty years old and had been obsolete long before Quistis had been born. "Any idea where you steer one of these things from?" she asked Seifer who was still following behind her.

"Yeah. Keep going."

The deck was wide and open except for a small shack toward the front of the ship. Seifer gestured toward it, so Quistis continued forward through the door and found a single chair parked in front of a huge array of buttons, throttles, and primitive analog meters. For a second, she stared at the instruments in shock. She'd never been taught how to use anything like this…no one had since built-in navigation had been invented.

"Ugly, isn't it?" Seifer said.

Nodding, Quistis pulled out the chair and sat down. Like everything else about the ship, it was old and uncomfortable with one rebellious spring that was pressing up against her thigh. Carefully, she looked across all the dials, all the buttons, then pushed her chair back a little to get a wider view in hope that something might jump out to her. "How the heck do you turn it on?"

Seifer leaned forward over her shoulder. "Try pressing this one." His hand shot past her and depressed a wide, blue button. It locked down for a moment, then clicked back up. Nothing happened. "Guess that wasn't it," Seifer said.

"Obviously."

"I'm just trying to help."

"I know…sorry. I don't have any idea what to do. Let's just press everything and see if we can even get _something_ to come on, or this whole voyage will be over before it's even begun." It was Selphie's default method of dealing with any technical situation, and more often than not the tactic actually worked. It was worth a shot, anyway. Both she and Seifer began pressing buttons, and when nothing happened he even went so far as to hit the console with his fist. Surprisingly, one of the screens came on.

"Sometimes you just gotta show it a little force," he said, grinning.

"Mmm…right." Quistis looked up at him, amused. He was leaning close to her, and he smelled good. Not like cologne or something special he was wearing. Like Seifer. Like the evening they'd spent dancing in Galbadia and the nights they'd spent huddled together on the island. She didn't want to lose this when they went back to Garden, she realized.

 She shook her head.

"Right. So…now we just…what?" The screen that had turned on was only showing text, and all of it was in another language.

"Must be Centran," Seifer murmured.

"I don't know any Centran. Do you?"

Seifer shook his head. They sat for a moment longer, considering the screen and what everything on it might mean, until Carson poked his head in the door.

"We've got all the prisoners ready to go," he reported. "All the supplies are loaded, too. So once you're done here, we'll be ready to go."

"Sorry, Carson. Doesn't look like we're going to be going anywhere," Quistis replied. "All of their ship systems are in Centran."

"Centran?" His eyes got big and he rushed into the room, shoving Seifer out of the way in his haste. His chest was puffing out, filling his uniform so that the seams threatened to burst. "Are you serious?" He bent down, peering over Quistis's shoulder at the text. "Oh…holy Hyne. I think I'm going to die. Right here, right now."

Seifer snorted. "Good."

"I'm a bit of an expert on foreign languages," Carson announced, ignoring the jibe. "I've been studying Centran for years."

"How lucky for us," Seifer replied sarcastically. "An interpreter. You can really read all that?"

"Well, I don't actually _know_ the language per-say," Carson admitted. "But I do know some languages that are close. The language spoken in southern Esthar, for instance, is thought to be a close cousin of Centran. We don't really have a lot of Centran, you see, since the Lunar Cry wiped out…well…pretty much everything. But all the books on the subject say that Centran and Estharan share some common morphemes. Some of the syntax is off, of course. And there's a whole host of other problems with trying to understand the pragmatics of a dead language."

"Why the heck have you been studying a dead language anyway?" Seifer asked.

"Because I'm writing a book set in Centra. It's a political thriller about the First Sorceress War. It's all about this woman who is from southern Esthar, and she turns traitor, starts working against Adel. The idea is that she's part of the beginning of the rebellion, the one that eventually overthrows Adel, but the Lunar Cry just wipes out everyone she's come to know and love in Centra. So she—"

"Carson." Quistis put her hand on his, interrupting him. "All I really need to know is whether you can figure out how to get us back to the mainland."

He shrugged. "I could try."

"Great. Do it."

She relinquished her seat to him and stood next to Seifer to watch. Both of them crossed their arms, watching with interest as Carson placed himself in the chair and began muttering aloud, obviously enjoying the task and the chance to show off his knowledge. "Okay." He touched one hand to his mouth. "I think this right here, and this right here, should start up our engines." He pressed a few buttons.

With a loud beep, a radar screen came on.

"Oh." Carson blushed. "I guess not. But that's just as good! Let's try this instead." The second time, he actually managed to get it right, and after a few minutes of trial and error, he had the ship ready to go. Quistis couldn't help but be impressed.

"Nice job."

He grinned and slung his arm around her. "Thanks, babe."

Though the moment that followed was supremely awkward, Carson didn't appear to notice. As gently as she could, Quistis extracted herself from his grip and said, "You'll have go ride back on this ship. I think it's fair to say you're the only one who's going to be able to captain it. I'm going to send Adrian and Kelly along with you. Seifer and I will ride back in the Garden craft with Aurelia."

"I was hoping you'd ride back with me," Carson replied. "We haven't had a chance to catch up."

"I know. But I don't want to leave anyone alone with Aurelia."

"So, if she's really that dangerous, send Adrian along with Seifer."

"The team assignments are decided," she said firmly. "We're not done with this mission yet. I'll sit down with you and we'll have a nice long talk as soon as we get back to Garden. All right?"

There was nothing but distrust and contempt in Carson's expression when he glanced at Seifer and nodded. He had to suspect the truth by now. It pained Quistis to do this to him and to drag their relationship out. A clean break right at the moment he'd walked onto the beach probably would have been the kindest thing do to. But she wanted the chance to explain her decision to him in private.

"Okay. Let's get out of here. I'll tell Kelly and Adrian that we're ready to go. Carson, you can just follow right behind us. I've already got the course back plotted in the other boat."

Quistis took it as a sign that their relationship was beginning to change when he didn't argue with her. Though he was sullen about it, he turned around and continued to work on the ship's controls, saying nothing as Quistis and Seifer walked out together. Down below deck, Kelly and Adrian were standing close together, holding hands and talking quietly.

"Everyone on board?" Quistis asked.

"Yep. Head count is thirty seven."

"Good. You two are staying here for the trip. Make sure they're taken care of. Carson's acting captain. You can radio us in the other ship if there's any problems."

"Yes, sir." Adrian saluted, then smiled. "Have a nice trip."

With Aurelia chained to the wall, seething with hatred, and the question of their relationship still up in the air, Quistis didn't suppose that the trip was going to be as pleasant as Adrian was imagining. But she appreciated the sentiment. She and Seifer disembarked, walked down the beach to their own ship, and climbed inside. Before they even had the door closed, Aurelia opened her mouth to speak, ready to begin railing against Garden and SeeD again. Quistis didn't want to hear it, so before the other woman could say anything, she cast a hasty sleep spell on her and added a silence spell for good measure.

Aurelia's head fell to one side, banging against the wall with a muted thud.

"Excessive much?" Seifer asked, one eyebrow arched curiously.

"If you really want to listen to her all the way back, feel free to wake her up," Quistis replied.

"Uh…that's okay." He chuckled and sat down in the co-pilot's chair. "It's just that you're not usually this cranky."

"What? I'm not cranky."

"You've been moody all day," he replied as he typed in the commands to start the ship's engines. "What is it that's eating you? Aren't you glad to be done here?"

She stared at him, not at all sure how to answer that question. Perhaps it was time to just be honest and ask him what was going to happen when they landed back in Balamb. Maybe sitting down to talk through the mission, everything that had gone wrong, and everything they'd misjudged would help her come to terms with it. She knew that Seifer wouldn't pull any punches — he'd tell her exactly where she'd made mistakes. They had nothing but time to sit and talk, after all.

Their ship started off toward the open sea. On the radar, Quistis could see Carson's ship fall in behind them.

"I've been thinking about my relationship with Carson," she admitted. Thinking about how she didn't love him. Wondering how she'd ever thought that she could manufacture something that just wasn't there. She'd been in his place before and knew how it would feel when she finally broke the news. A long time ago, she'd thought she'd never love anyone but Squall, but when she'd tried to tell him that, he'd brushed her off. She'd always thought that even if he didn't love her then, he could have come to love her if Rinoa hadn't entered the picture. Maybe it was that lingering idea that had convinced her to give Carson every opportunity to win her heart.

Now Seifer had won it instead. It was like Squall and Rinoa all over again. Suddenly, she understood why he'd never opened up to her.

"Brecht is a…" Seifer trailed off for a moment, apparently deciding to say something else than what he'd initially intended. "He's a okay SeeD, I guess. I always think Instructors are soft. But he held his own okay, I suppose."

He paused, finished with the navigation screen and set the ship to auto-pilot.

"He has piss-poor timing, though."

Quistis smiled, latching onto that as an indication he might want to continue where they'd left off.

"How's your back?" she asked.

"Great."

"The fight didn't aggravate it? Has the scarring gone down at all? I feel kind of bad about that. Usually I can heal things completely."

Surprising her, he spun around in his chair so that his back was to her, then worked up the back of his shirt. The scars were still puffy, probably would be for the rest of his life. She reached out and trailed her fingers down the slashes, making him shudder.

So it _was_ still there. Something tense. Something electric.

"What do you think?" he asked. "Is my modeling career ruined, or what?"

She laughed. "Yes. Afraid so."

He turned around, letting his shirt drop back into place, and reached across the space between them to wind his fingers in the hair falling over her shoulder. "I want to talk about this."

"About what?"

His hand moved up to her chin, captured it. "Don't play dumb. You know what I'm talking about." He took a deep breath. "About Carson. About you…and me. I mean, I think it's pretty god damn obvious how I feel here, and Brecht, too, seeing as we've been at each others' throats since he got here. So what about you?"

"You hate Carson purely because I'm dating him?"

"No. I hate him because he's a dip-shit. Don't change the subject. If you're really in love with him, you gotta just tell me now."

"I'm not," she replied quickly.

"Then why are you leading him on? Why haven't you broken it off with him?"

"Because…we're in the middle of a mission here. When was I supposed to sit down and explain to him that I want to break up? When the shadow cat was attacking? Or when were fighting on the beach?"

"How about right when he got off the boat?" Seifer suggested.

"In front of everyone?"

"It's cruel to let him carry on thinking you love him," he replied sharply. "And it's really goddamn cruel to hang onto him just so you can avoid _me_, if that's what you're doing. I'll understand if you don't want anyone back at Garden to know about what happened out there, Quistis. You don't need to hold onto this awful Carson Brecht shit to keep it under wraps."

She was flabbergasted. "That's not what I'm doing."

He frowned and leaned forward, his green eyes burning into her. "Tell me the truth."

"I am." She grabbed his hand. "Seifer…I don't care if anyone back at Garden knows about us. But I need time to break it off clean with Carson. Not some cold boot to the curb. I owe him that much. And, honestly, I wasn't really sure if there even was an _us_."

He shook his head and pulled her closer. "Hyne. I hope there is," he said and leaned in to kiss her. His mouth was soft against hers, his eyes firmly closed. Like always, she was fluid and malleable under his hands. "Because I've never felt this before," he continued when he broke away. "Have you?"

Face flushed with a rising tide of lust and affection, she shook her head and fought the urge to throw her arms around him and hold him close. "No," she replied, leaning close despite herself. "Never."


	26. Parting Ways

Chapter 25: Parting Ways

Cid smiled up at his wife as she sat down in the chair beside his bed, a steaming bowl of soup held between her delicate hands. Her painted nails tapped against the glass sides of the bowl, marking time to the slow curve of her lips as she smiled. Her dark hair was flowing straight down her back and looked more beautiful than Cid could ever remember it, as did the pale, heart-shaped face it framed.

"Are you ready?" she asked.

"You didn't have to do this," Cid pointed out, loving her al the while for her infinite compassion.

She shrugged and set the bowl down on the red and yellow checkered tray stretched across his lap. "Yes I did," she replied. "Be careful. It's very hot."

"What kind?" he asked.

"Chicken noodle with homemade noodles." She stirred it and lifted some of the noodles out for him to see.

"That sounds…oh my God, so much better than hospital food." Edea's homemade noodles were among his favorite foods, but they took a lot of effort and preparation to make, so she usually reserved them for special occasions. It was a little odd to eat something he usually only ate around the holidays while in the hospital, but the mere idea that his wife had spent so much time and effort making this just to make him feel more at home warmed every inch of his so-sore heart.

She watched as he spooned the broth and noodles into his mouth. A small groan of satisfaction escaped him and he swallowed with deep appreciation.

"It's amazing," he assured her. He was sitting in the infirmary's private suite, still in bed but with several big, crunchy pillows propping him up. All things considered, this heart attack was not the worst thing to ever happen to him. He hadn't lived so much in the present in years.

Edea propped her chin in her hand and watched him eat. Cid knew what she wanted to say to him, but they both knew that it didn't need to be said. It was time for a new phase of their life together to begin. He'd always know that this moment would come. And now that it was here, he didn't mind it as much as he thought he would. They were finally coming back to one another.

_Retirement_. Hyne. He couldn't believe he was already so old.

"Full?" she asked when he finished the soup.

"Yeah. Thanks." He sighed and settled back down into bed, warmth radiating up from his stomach. "I love you."

"I love you, too," she replied and gently brushed her hand across his forehead.

0 0 0

Seifer braced himself as the vessel beached hard against the southern Centra shore. The thud under his feet pushed his stomach up into his throat and shoved his heart against his backbone. For a moment, it stayed there until physics pushed everything back into proper alignment again. Beside him, in the pilot's chair, Quistis blushed and apologized. He knew why she'd lost track of their approach (the dirty message he'd typed to her was still displayed at the bottom corner of his screen) but far behind them Aurelia was unaware.

"A little warning next time?" she barked. "If all your landings are that rough, you're not going to get me back to your damn Garden in one piece."

At the same time, Carson's voice came on the radio. "Are you guys okay? That looked rough even from back here!"

Quistis opened a channel to him. "We're fine. Just a small…equipment malfunction."

To make up for some of the trouble he'd caused, Seifer took care of shutting down the engines and getting the ship prepared for them to disembark. Bright sunlight streamed in through the opening when the seal hissed, broke, and the door opened to flop down against the soft Centran sand. The fresh air smelled good after so long locked inside the ship.

"Where are we?" Aurelia asked when Seifer bent down to release her hands from their bindings. She breathed an audible sigh of relief when he let her bring her hands in front of her and rub fresh blood back into her wrists and fingers. Her feet were uncertain when he pulled her up onto them, but she quickly regained her balance and her composure.

"We're on the far southern coast of Centra," he replied. "We'll be going back by air from here."

They climbed down the ramp and out into the blinding sun. Seifer had to shade his eyes before he spotted the Ragnarok up on the hillside. Aurelia grunted to make it clear that she was unimpressed. Squall was already walking toward them, his expression as impassive and dispassionate as ever. If he was glad to see that they were alive, he didn't show it. A detail of SeeDs were walking along with him.

"Good to have you back," he said when he got up to Quistis.

"Good to be back," she replied.

Behind them, the other ship beached. Adrian was the first one out, followed shortly by Kelly. Brecht lagged behind and when he finally did emerge, he did so with a cowed, sullen look. He'd committed a serious infraction against Garden to come and get them and he probably knew, at the very least, that he'd be losing his instructor's license. His face was pale when he saluted Squall. Miraculously, his uniform was pressed and perfect. There wasn't even a wrinkle in the pants. Seifer didn't know how the man had managed to spend several days on a tropical island and come out looking like he'd just come from the dry cleaners.

None of them had showered in days. Seifer was so rumpled and worn that he wasn't sure how long it would take him to get clean again. He was really looking forward to a long, blistering hot shower full of thick lather and billowing steam. And then a long nap in a soft bed. He'd had more than his fill of sleeping on the ground.

Of course, if the company were the same…he thought he could probably adjust.

It still felt strange. He wasn't the sort of person who got into serious relationships. Ever since Rinoa, he hadn't really seen the point. Why risk it? Besides, he knew what kind of person he was: hot-headed, stupid, and cheap. He played. He teased. But he didn't love. Now, all of the sudden, all that was changing. It was strange. But good.

Squall was talking to Brecht. "I'm sorry, but I'm going to need to confiscate your ID."

"You can't be serious," Quistis objected and ran over to tug on Squall's arm. "I know he broke the rules, but he did it to save our lives, Squall. You did the same thing for Rinoa. And without him, the mission would have been a total loss. He won this one for Garden."

"It's not my decision," Squall replied with a shrug.

"What about Cid?" she persisted, following him back up toward the Ragnarok. Keeping a tight hold on Aurelia, Seifer followed them. "Can't he do anything?" Quistis continued. "He can call the board, have a meeting. I'll explain everything."

"The headmaster can't do anything." Squall forked one hand through his hair. "He's ill."

"Ill?" Quistis's features blanched. "Is he okay? What happened?"

0 0 0

"Headmaster." Quistis saluted respectfully, her elbow hitting a rack full of medical supplies.

He stared back at her from the infirmary bed. All around her, the infirmary was bustling as the prisoners from their coup were still being processed and given proper medical attention. Their return and the huge influx of people had done a little to staunch the wild rumors flying around Garden as to Cid's condition. There was one that held he'd been attacked while working late at night and that Xu had been injured as well while fending off the would-be assassin. Another claimed that Cid had contracted a rare but deadly disease (although no consensus had been formed on which disease he had).

Despite the sudden heart attack and the hospital bed he was sitting in, he looked good.

"I'm glad to see you," he said. "I wasn't sure for a while there that was going ever going to again."

"It was certainly a close call, sir," she replied.

"I don't think we've handled this many political prisoners since the time Galbadia Garden attacked us." He motioned around. "So tell me, what exactly is this we've stumbled across here? I thought you went looking for monsters."

"We did. These people were all living on the island," Quistis explained, then relayed the whole story that Aurelia had told them about the refugees from Centra and the shadow cats that they'd manufactured to protect them.

"Why make it vulnerable to water?" Cid asked.

Quistis shrugged. "They needed some way to control it, I suppose."

"But it's not exactly something we wouldn't have figured out if they'd tried to use it against us. Every SeeD carries water magic."

"Aurelia gave us only sketchy details, and we couldn't get her to talk about any of the technical aspects of the shadow cats," Quistis explained. "It could be that they weren't finished with them yet. Maybe the water vulnerability was something they were still trying to weed out. We did overhear enough while we were there to suggest they were working on an improved generation of monsters."

"Were is this woman now?"

"Separate from the others. She's being held in high security detention."

"And how about the body?" Cid asked. "How did that fit into all of this."

"Sascha Maurden. We still don't really know for certain, sir. He was recruited by the group to live and work on the island. He did for several years. But we still don't have the exact details of his death. It could have been an accident. Or they could have fed him to the monsters to get rid of him. We might never know."

"I take it these monsters were just as threatening as they seemed."

"More so." Quistis stepped out of the way as a nurse came into the room, took Cid's vitals, and then left. "We were attacked by one within minutes of arriving on the island. There's still several of them there. Are we going to be sending down a team to round them up?"

"Eventually. But for right now, we're just going to keep this under wraps." Breaking out of their military relationship for a moment, Cid reached out and touched Quistis's arm. "I know you've requested a hearing to get Carson's instructorship reinstated."

"He doesn't deserve to have his position taken away on account of me."

Cid nodded, then continued. "I know how you feel. For that matter, I know how Carson felt, too. If it had been up to me, he wouldn't have been put in that position. But no one here can ignore the fact that he stole the ship, the Ragnarok, that he defied orders, and encouraged other people to defy orders, too. We've decided not to punish the student he convinced to tag along as a pilot. But we are going to dock Kelly one semester's worth of credits. And we can't let Carson continue on as an instructor."

"I understand." They couldn't have someone at Garden enforcing the rules who wasn't subject to them himself. It would set a bad example, make him a bad leader. Garden instructors were the cream of the crop. There were any number of well-qualified people in the wings waiting for a position to open up.

"Before you go, there's one more thing I want to tell you." Cid looked around to make sure no one else was within earshot. "I've decided to retire. Not right away…I'm going to serve out the rest of this term. But once that's done, I'm going to be moving in with Edea at the orphanage."

Quistis couldn't quite hide her surprise. "I see," she said softly. "You'll certainly be missed here, sir. Can I ask…have you chosen a replacement?"

"Yes." He smiled. "Xu."

"I think she's a great choice," Quistis replied with a flush of warmth for her friend. Xu was nothing if not dedicated. She'd worked harder than anyone in Garden for the past several years and deserved the promotion more than anyone else Quistis could think of.

For a few more minutes, she sat with the headmaster, quietly discussing the more personal details of Cid's health. When she finally got up to leave, the infirmary was so full of people that she had a difficult time getting out the door of Cid's private suite. All of the people sitting on the exam room beds were people Quistis had brought back from the island. As she walked through the lobby, Dr. Kadowaki caught her by the arm and complimented her on the healing work she'd done in the field.

"Really top notch," she said. "I saw the work you did on Mr. Almasy earlier. Very impressive."

Nodding her thanks, Quistis continued out the door. Finally, the heavy responsibility for the mission, her team, and the boatload of prisoners sloughed off her shoulders, leaving her to sigh and shudder with relief.

There was only one issue left to resolve.

Her boots clacked against the Garden's tile floor as she walked, her stride purposeful and strong, full of renewed energy. She'd put this off long enough. On her first day back, rather than deal with anything, she'd indulged in a long shower and an even longer nap that had lasted into the next day. Now she wished that she'd just gotten this over with.

Sooner than she would have liked, Quistis found herself standing in front of Carson Brecht's door. With a steadying breath, she knocked, the too-firm rap making her knuckles sting. She waited for a moment, repeating the speech she'd rehearsed in her head, until the door slid open.

"Hey!" He grinned and waved her in. "I'm glad you're here. I've got great news!"

"You do?" Thrown, she followed him in. Had he not heard yet that his instructor's license had been revoked? Hyne. She really didn't want to be the one to deliver that news, too.

"I wrote this article a while back about illegal poaching of the speckled pygmy owl," he explained and pulled out the chair at his desk so she could sit down. Glad for it, she did. "I sent it off to _Timber Maniacs_, and while I was away, I got a letter from them in the mail. They're going to publish it! Can you believe it? They're going to pay me two hundred gil, too."

"Um…congratulations," Quistis replied, dumbfounded.

"You know what this makes me?" he asked.

She couldn't even guess. "What?"

"A professional." He grabbed what she guessed was the letter off his desk and clutched it to his chest. "I've been dreaming of this moment my entire life. I know it probably doesn't seem like much…but this is just the first step. I've got a resume now, so the book I'm writing about Centra is that much closer to hitting the shelves. Right? And _Timber Maniacs_ could even decide to take me on as a regular contributor. I've already got another article prepared to submit. If this works out…" He shook his head. "I can finally quit SeeD."

"Quit?"

He looked surprised. "Yeah. You know…move someplace nice like Timber or Winhill and have a regular life."

"A regular life," Quistis repeated. "You mean have a wife, two-point-five kids, and a house in the suburbs?"

"Yeah. Sure."

She frowned, their conversation bolstering her resolve to end this relationship before she ended up barefoot and pregnant, stuffing a turkey in some picture perfect blue and white kitchen.

For once, he noticed her unease. "Don't tell me you want to be a mercenary for the rest of your life," he said and sat down. "Quistis, you do realize that most SeeDs don't live past twenty-five, don't you? I would have thought this last mission would have made you realize that this isn't an occupation you can grow old in."

"Maybe. But it's who I am."

Carson looked like he was seeing her for the first time. And she thought that maybe he was. She'd been raised from infancy to be a SeeD. Garden was the only world and the only life she'd ever known. It was the only place she belonged.

"This isn't going to work," she said.

"No. It's okay. If Garden's that important to you, I'll stay here."

She shook her head. "That's not what I meant."

As realization dawned, Carson's blue eyes turned liquid. "You're breaking up with me."

"Yeah," she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "You're a good guy, Carson. And it sounds like you've really got something going here with your writing. You should go after it…live the dream. You and me, we're just not right for each other."

Still in shock, he shook his head. "Relationships aren't supposed to be easy. They take work, and—"

"No," Quistis interrupted. "No amount of working at it is going to change this. I'm sorry."

Slowly, he was beginning to process what she was saying. He got up and began pacing, and though it pained Quistis to watch him really begin to feel the sting of her rejection, she waited until he stopped, his arms crossed.

"This is about Seifer. Isn't it?" he asked, heartache making his words ring sharp.

The least she could do was be honest with him. "Not entirely. I've been thinking about this for a while. But…the mission did make me realize that it wasn't fair to either of us to hang onto a relationship that wasn't going to work."

He nodded, turned his back on her, and gestured toward the door. "I…um…guess I'll see you later then."

As she walked out, Quistis stopped to put one hand on his shoulder — a gesture filled with more genuine physical affection than in any of the kisses they'd shared. "Galbadia is beautiful this time of year," she said and squeezed. "Good luck. _Timber Maniacs_ would be lucky to have you."

"Yeah…thanks." His voice trailed after her to the door, heavy with sadness as he let her go. "Goodbye, Quistis."


	27. The Crescent Moon

Chapter 26: The Crescent Moon

The sun was beginning its final descent into the sea, casting long shadows through the grass on the hillside cemetery. Quistis's was wearing black high heels with straps that twisted around her ankles, a tight black skirt, and a black blazer that was buttoned tightly over the blue tank top she had on underneath. Her heels sank into the ground, cementing her in place as the crowed heaved and sighed around her.

Seifer glanced down at her, then turned his attention back to the front of the crowd as a young preacher began to speak.

"It is always a tragedy to lose someone so young," he began. "But it is especially tragic to lose someone like Sascha who had so much potential."

Mrs. Maurden let out a loud sob and threw out one hand to slap it on top of the shiny wooden coffin that held the remains of her son. The polished surface reflected her image like a funhouse mirror.

"It is important to remember at times like this that death isn't an end for any of us," the preacher continued, pressing the book he was holding to his chest. "When I was very young, my mother died in a car accident. And my father, who suddenly had to raise both myself and my younger sister, struggled for a long time to cope. Then, one day, as we were riding in the car a truck passed by us and he turned to me and he said, 'This is what it's like. Everyday we walk through life until one day we're finally overcome by the shadow of death. But that's all that it is…a shadow. Just like when we were in the shadow of that truck, it's not painful, not frightening. It's no more terrible than stepping into the shade.'

"And I sat there in the car, speeding down the highway toward Deling City, and I knew that he was right." The preacher looked around the crowd and took in their murmurs of agreement before continuing. "Sascha is in the shadow. He's not lonely. And he's not hurting anymore. He is at peace."

Quistis looked down at the ground, not wanting to listen to anymore. She wanted to pay her respects to Maurden and had been hoping that doing so might help her close the book on her mission, but funerals were difficult for her. Being a SeeD meant that she had to confront death every day (both her own and others'), and she preferred to think of it in more concrete terms. She didn't want to think about what happened afterward or ponder her own mortality. Funerals forced her to do that and it made her uncomfortable.

When they began to lower the coffin into the dark grave, Mrs. Maurden bent down and gathered a bit of dirt in her hand. Quistis watched her struggle back onto her feet, her stiff hips forcing her to clutch the person next to her for support. Then her thick, short arm stretched out and dropped the dirt down onto the coffin's lid. A few other people, perhaps close family, did so as well.

And then it was over. Sascha's body was in the ground being covered over with dirt, a tombstone already prepared. Beside his grave was his father's. The plot, Quistis had overheard, was originally bought for Mrs. Maurden to be buried in.

Looking around, Quistis felt a twisted stab of jealousy. Who would attend her funeral, she wondered? Would she even have one? She didn't have any family, and she'd probably die on some godforsaken corner of the globe where there wouldn't be burials or services. Just her team. Just someone like Seifer standing at her side in those last moments.

Hell…there were worse ways to go.

"We're sorry for your loss," Seifer said, sounding very much like the line had been practiced, as he walked up to Maurden's mother.

"Oh my. You're that SeeD!" Suddenly, quick as a viper, she had her arms wrapped around him and was clutching him about the waist, hugging him desperately. "Thank you for coming! Thank you for bringing my baby back to me!"

Seifer sputtered in her vice-like grip, his buggy eyes begging Quistis to help him. Unfortunately, there was nothing she could do until Mrs. Maurden decided to let go on her own.

"You're welcome in my home anytime, dear," she said, her eyes wide and filled with fat, glossy tears as she looked up at him. "You understand that? _Anytime_. I've got an empty room now, you know."

"I'll keep that in mind," Seifer promised, and with that vow, Mrs. Maurden slowly released him.

It was exceedingly unlikely Seifer would ever find himself in Winhill, and Quistis wasn't sure if it was sweet or cruel of him to let the poor woman think that he might ever take her up on her offer. She was quickly overtaken by other funeral guests, however, and Seifer seemed to slip from her mind.

"Hyne," Seifer complained under his breath as he turned around, looped his arm through Quistis's, and began directing them away. "You'd think the woman would wait at least a few days before she tried to get someone to fill her dead son's bed."

"I'm not sure it's her son's bed she's interested in filling," Quistis whispered.

Seifer groaned with disgust. "Don't _ever_ make me imagine that again."

Quistis felt a little guilty for smiling and joking as she left the funeral. But she had never known Sascha when he was alive, so it was difficult to walk away with the same sense of loss she saw in everyone else. She and Seifer had requested special permission to travel to Galbadia for the funeral. It wasn't the sort of thing SeeDs usually did. But they had both felt compelled to attend. They were due back in Balamb Garden by morning, under strict orders to take the direct train from Timber to Balamb and not waste time "sightseeing." Xu's words; she was already being groomed for her promotion.

Though an unfortunate bought of coincidence, Carson Brecht had been on the same train to Galbadia as Seifer and Quistis when they left. They'd only just parted ways with him in Deling City where he was staying the night with a friend for a few days until he could find a place to start his new life outside of Garden. He'd been pleasant and cordial for the whole trip. As irritating as it was to have him around, Quistis had to admire the way he conducted himself. She knew that with as awkward as it was for her, it must have been much more so for him.

In the cemetery parking lot, the car they had rented in Deling was flashing in the low evening light. It was blue and built to look antiquated even though everything under the hood and in the dash was less than a year old. _Something about the people in this part of the world_, Quistis thought to herself, _they all want to look ancient._

Seifer climbed into the driver's seat and slammed the door. Quistis got in on the passenger side and quickly leaned down to take off her heels.

"Oh Hyne." She stretched, wiggled her toes, and shuddered with relief. "I've been wanting to do that all day."

With a grin, Seifer turned the key in the ignition and the car roared to life. A woman was singing on the radio in a soft, high register with strings soaring behind her. Seifer's fingers tapped rhythmically against the steering wheel, even as he angled his body backwards so that he could back the car out of the space. The long drive ahead would take them from the outskirts of Winhill all the way back to Deling City where they would catch a train back to Timber, and then another one back to Balamb. They'd already had a long day of travel, and Quistis wasn't looking forward to sitting still again for the ride back. She looked out the window at the small cottages passing by and wished that they could just stop and settle in somewhere for the night.

As they drove, the pace of the sun's decent increased until it barely clung to the horizon. Reaching forward, Seifer flipped on the headlights and the dash began to glow a steady green-blue. The same color as his eyes, Quistis thought.

"Did you hear about Aurelia?" she asked.

"What about her?"

"They're going to send another team down to the island to collect what we had to leave behind," she said and rolled down the window to let the warm night air inside. "They're even hoping to bring back a shadow cat. But until they get all the evidence gathered to use her trial, they're going to be transferring her to a high-security prison in Esthar."

"Esthar, huh? That'll piss her off."

"I know."

"And no one in Esthar realizes who she is?" he asked.

"They think she's a domestic terrorist."

The fresh night was flowing in around them, darkness taking over the evening with such stealth that Quistis wasn't sure exactly when it had stopped being light out. She could smell the far distant ocean, grass, flowers, and the memory of some rain storm that had come through. Tilting her head back, she took in deep breaths.

"What about everyone else we brought back?" Seifer asked. "They headed to the prison in Esthar, too?"

"No. They're being sent here to Galbadia. They're all going to be held until Xu decides what to do with them. Plus anyone the new team manages to find still alive on the island."

Seifer's hands tightened on the wheel. "Like Abra. It's been bothering me that he wasn't among the prisoners we brought back. And he wasn't among the dead either. He must have run back into the woods, and that's one bastard who I bet could survive."

"I've thought that, too," Quistis admitted.

Silence fell between them. It was peaceful, full with the knowledge that their part in the mission was over. Quistis nuzzled her head back against the headrest and let a soft sigh sneak past her lips to mingle with the fragrant air.

"So, you are Carson are…?" Seifer suddenly asked. The question had been lingering between them all day.

"Are officially over," she replied. "I broke up with him as soon as we got back to Balamb. He lost his license, you probably heard. That's why he quit SeeD and is going after the journalism job with _Timber Maniacs_."

"No white picket fence and two screaming kids in your future then?"

"Well…none with Carson." She wasn't entirely opposed to the idea of a home or children, she just didn't want either of them quite yet. Maybe in ten years she'd be a different person with more room in her life and a greater thirst for permanence. Right now, she was thirsty for something else entirely. She hadn't had much time alone with Seifer since they'd returned from the island. It was warming her inside to reconnect with him.

They slowed down for a sharp corner, and Seifer had a scrunched up look of concentration on his face. "You never would have learned to love him, you know. You can't _learn_ to do it. You just do."

"How would you know?"

He gave her a mysterious look that made her heart hammer against her ribs. "I just do."

"Are you saying…?"

"Yes," he replied immediately, interrupting her.

"Yes what? You didn't even let me finish."

He sighed loudly and took his foot off the gas, letting the car coast off the road and come to a stop. The song on the radio seemed unusually loud now without the wind rushing in the open windows or the sound of the car's wheels on the pavement. Crickets were singing in the grass, their chirps interrupting the rhythm of the song. Seifer reached out to then it down, then turned off the car and drew in a deep breath.

"Yes. I'm in love with you."

She was floored.

"You…you love me?" It seemed unreal. How could he just say that so matter of factly? Maybe she hadn't heard him right. They'd never slept together. They'd never even been on a date. How could he know?

"Of course I do. Isn't it obvious?"

"It just seems like the sort of thing you might need to take some time to think about."

He leaned across the car toward her, then reached out to tuck the hair on one side of her face behind her ear. "No. It's exactly the sort of thing I _don't_ need to think about."

Quistis almost had no breath left in her body to respond. "Seifer…I'm not sure if I can—"

"I don't need you to say it back," he assured her. His hand was cradling the back of her head now, warm and firm and persuasive. Then, for the first time since they'd arrived back in Balamb, he kissed her. It was soft and honest. And even though it had none of the fire or desperation of the kisses she remembered, it made her heart swell. Garden, Winhill, and the whole rest of the world was far away. In their car in the dark on this lonely stretch of road, she felt like she had all she could ever want.

She wasn't sure if this was love, but it certainly was _something_.

"I've been thinking about you a lot lately," she admitted. "About the time we spent together in Esthar and Deling City, and on the island. These past few days in Garden, I've really missed you."

"Really?" He grinned. "Any moments in particular you've been dwelling on?"

Quistis laughed. "Maybe."

He unbuckled his seat belt and turned toward her, then stopped and said, "Brecht's not going to come driving up behind us, is he? He was staying the night in Deling City, right?"

"As far as I know."

"No Squall, either? Because, you know, between the two of them, they can ruin pretty much any moment I want to have with you no matter where we are on the planet."

Quistis unbuckled as well and took a hold of Seifer's lapel, pulling him close. "Even if Squall and Carson were to land together in the Ragnarok right here, right now…I wouldn't care," she said, blushing a little at the idea of getting caught in the back of a steamed up car like a teenager. But the thought excited her, too. As she scooted across the front seat, he wrapped his arms around her, pulled her onto his lap, and kissed her again. With his fingers brushing up and down her spine and his tongue tracing her lips, Quistis felt more intimately connected to him than she had even in the midst of the mission when their very lives had been in each others hands. She groaned softly and relaxed into his grip, happy to give herself over to him, to wrap herself safely in his strength.

"I think we're going to miss our train," she said.

"Who cares?"

She grinned and kissed him again, then asked against his mouth, "How come we never did this before now?"

"I dunno. I guess it just wasn't the right time yet," he replied, but he wasn't concentrating on what she was saying. His hands were untucking her shirt, pushing it up over her ribs, and then lingering there along the soft skin around her navel, up to her breastbone, and along the edge of her bra back to the clasp. Slowly, methodically, he began tracing her every curve, removing clothing only as it got in the way.

By the time he had her shirt and bra off, Quistis was on fire, leaning back against the steering wheel and staring up at the sky through the windshield while he licked and kissed from the hollow of her throat down…down until she fisted her fingers in his hair and held him in place.

Up above, from between fuzzy, luminous clouds, she could see the moon hanging in the sky. She felt like she could have reached out and grabbed it, brought it down to earth, and for a moment she thought about the Lunar Cry a century ago that had somehow brought her to this place with this man. Perhaps this was fate, true love that was meant to be.

_Hyne_, _yes_. That had to be it.

She wrapped her arms around him, holding him close, and whispered in his ear that she loved him until finally the fog diffused the sharp light of the moon, and closed them into a world all their own.


	28. Blue Heaven

Epilogue: Blue Heaven

The light from the moon glazed the world in stark, rippling blue. It ran like honey down the beaches until it dissolved into the darker sea. It illuminated the mountains in the distance, glinting off their craggy peaks, and became entangled in the thick foliage of the valley floor. Curious, wide eyes looked out into the night and saw for the first time their new home. New to their senses, old to their blood. They were aware of their deep roots here even though they didn't recognize the land itself. Here they were sheltered by the night and by sacrifice. If blood made any sort of talisman against evil, they'd be guarded well.

Aurelia had done them one final favor. She'd thrown herself to the SeeDs, giving them time to get away, and their existence was a secret she kept even now.

Ancestral phantoms rose from the earth and creaked in the trees in welcome. Many long years had passed since this land had last seen the people it loved.

Abra turned around to face his charges. They were his people's pride and joy, their one hope for building a future. The children's small, upturned faces looked to him for guidance. They were almost elfin, brimming with innocence but destined to build the strong foundation of a new Centran nation. They'd be so much stronger than before.

One little girl stood at the front of the group, her dark hair falling about her head in wild waves. Her mouth pursed as she took in her homeland. It was the same look Aurelia had when she'd first landed on this coast years before. So familiar.

These children were all of the people Abra had ever known and loved, but made better. These children would grow to fly him up to laugh in the face of the moon. No monster could touch them. No magic could harm them. One day, they would _own_ this world.

He gathered them close and directed them away from the boat, inland toward their future.

A thrill raced through him. After all these years, this was it — their blue heaven.


End file.
